


Shuri

by chickennuggetmoney



Series: Shuri [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-13 06:33:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 45,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28524012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chickennuggetmoney/pseuds/chickennuggetmoney
Summary: The life of the Avengers based around Shuri - in this Shuri and Michelle jones, MJ or Em, are a couple, as is Maria Hill and Natasha Romanoff and Valkyrie and Red dawn. It is set in the avengers base - hope you enjoy
Relationships: Maria Hill/Natasha Romanov, Michelle Jones/Shuri
Series: Shuri [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2089467
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Red Dawn Part 1](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28506273) by [well_well_well](https://archiveofourown.org/users/well_well_well/pseuds/well_well_well). 



> Hi! this is my first fandom, I haven't actually seen the avengers, but read my friend's fandom for this site, absolutely loved the characters and decided to have a go - please forgive me if I make mistakes! I have written loads more and will post it here soon. There is a character in this, Red Dawn, also known as Iris - she has been created by my friend - well_well_well_ but I have used her in my book - please comment or leave Kudos if you enjoy it!

‘Oh well that’s just great. Absolutely brilliant.’ I sigh, throwing the letter down onto the table and promptly knocking over a cup of tea. I stare at the brown stain spreading slowly over the paper like the embarrassment over spiderling’s face when he discovered his best friend and ‘sister’ were dating. He had been so mad that all the girls in the tower had more romantic luck than he had – we bugged him the first, and last time he had ever asked a girl out and he managed to trip three times over the same chair, forget how to speak English and then yell supposedly into thin air when we told him patronizingly through a hidden earpiece that he was doing great. Ahh Fun times. 

‘well, I have to say I do admire your level of finessed sarcasm even at a trying moment like this…’ MJ laughs 

I look at her. Deadpan. 

‘Em do you really think I am in the mood for that right now.’ I say, trying to muster up as much anger and hurt as I can. Her face falls 

‘sorry I just thought it was..sorry’. 

I throw my head back snorting uncontrollably 

‘did..snort..you really… snort……think that….snort…..i wasn’t in the….snort …. mood for ….snort snort snort’ 

My giggles subsided a little and she mock punches me in the shoulder but, being the clumsy person, and extremely stereotypical lesbian I am, it makes my precariously seated position even more precarious and I topple over, with much swearing and land with a crash on the floor of the kitchen. 

True to form, whilst trying to come and help, Em manages to trip over me and lands spread-eagles on top of me, with an even bigger crash. 

‘Jesus Em how much do you weigh!’ I groaned and turned over, reflecting that spending any more time with my freakishly thor-like girlfriend would require full padding and several layers of bubble wrap to be escaped from unscathed. 

With a resounding crash, and an ominous squeaking of hinges, the door flies open, then promptly hits the wall and flies back in the face of Thor, Bruce and Tony who obviously heard the crashes and thought we had decided to destroy the entire kitchen. 

‘Very macho’ I wheezed, clambering to my feet and yanking Em up too 

‘Although next time I would recommend hanging onto the door so that your moment of manly maiden-saving isn’t impeded by a small piece of wood’ said my infinitely wise and, fast learning sarcastic, girlfriend. 

‘that was very good patriarchal ball-busting dear,’ I said laughing and kissing her on the cheek. 

‘but I would save your feminist rants for more deserving audiences than this lot of muscle.’ 

I turn back the macho triplets. 

‘that will be all now thank you! – now run along – I have a speech for the women’s march to write.’ 

Once they have evacuated the kitchen grumbling about ungrateful Wakandan princesses and stupid bouncy doors, Em turns to me; 

‘you’re going to do it then’ she says hopefully 

‘I guess so – but only if you help me write it and are there with me to deliver it’ I grumble, giving her sad eyes. 

‘deal’ she says, and her dimples crease as she smiles. I’m so lucky. 

‘noooowwww, can we please go and thrash Nat, val and red on the Wii – I have some tactics I’ve been thinking up…’ 

I sigh in mock defeat 

‘okaaaayyy, but only if we bug FRI again so that every time they try to speak she just screams pineapple and throws pineapples at them…’ 

‘I don’t know where you get those ideas from but ok – sounds like fun, although, doesn’t it resemble the strawberries incident…’ she asks, as we exit the kitchen. 

‘damnit I knew it was too good to be a first-time plan….ummm….oooh why don’t we put balloons under their sofa cushions, so they pop when they sit down...’ 

‘well in theory that is a good idea, but I do worry that based on past experience Nat may shoot us…’ said Em, ever the reasonable life-saving bore. 

We eventually agree of getting FRI to sing the pina colada song every time they try to speak and showering them in bin juice, which I suppose could be amusing.


	2. Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Next bit!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! just to clarify, the nicknames used in this; little white girl is Red Dawn and Scary gay #4 is Natasha!

‘UGH WHY IS MY BRAIN NOT WORKING’ I scream. proceding to shoot the table many times with sonic blasts. 

Carol looks disapprovingly from behind the kettle. 

I look away sheepishly. 

‘what is it that your brain wants to shoot things about?’ they say, artfully moving fruit bowls and salt shakers to cover up the bullet wounds in the old table. 

‘it’s this speech for the Women’s march – they decided I should have it because little white girl, scary gay #4 and Val were too busy, and they wanted a queer female avenger to give a speech – so they decided to dump it on me but I’m letting down my entire gender because my pissing brain can’t think of what to say.’ I finish, a little out of breath. 

‘wellll,’ says carol ‘ I always find that a little training clears my head and I happen to know you haven’t done any today so meet me in the combat room in 10 minutes and we’ll run over what to do. ‘ 

I sigh but traipse up to my room to change into sports gear. 

10 minutes later I am standing on a martial arts mat, watching thor doing press ups and Nat destroy her third punchbag in a week, making myself a mental reminder to hurry up on that graphene-enforced one to save some money. 

Carol enters with little white girl and Val by her side and announces to the room at large, repeating several times until nat hears and takes off her headphones to listen, that I am going to be fighting all of them today at some point, to try anf get my writers block smashed away. 

I look at them with narrowed eyes, and plod over to the mat. Thor first. Great. I prayed internally that Em would be late and wouldn’t have to see me bring shame to womankind by being squished on my face by a MAN. I whip out some garrotting wire, and he bounces mejor between his hands like it’s made of rubber, clearly meaning to get me back for the ball-busting two days ago. Carol starts the match, after once again reminding us of the rules and Thor charges. Luckily, I managed to erect a clear barrier this morning, anticipating what would happen and he ran at full tilt into it, as I stepped away at the last moment and bounced back. I leapt onto him and had my elbow across his windpipe in a flash, holding him down with the tatishogutami judo hold, I whispered in his ear; 

‘never underestimated the power of bouncy doors and ungrateful wakandan princesses.’ 

He tapped out, just before his face turned blue and everyone applauded, as I did an exaggerated bow and Thor skulked away like an angry child to sit on the bench. 

I Saw Em by the door, doing the Asgardian lean as I taught her, and she gave me a silent round of applause. I tipped an imaginary bowler hat at her and did the awkward finger guns that we have come to associate with, well…. You know. 

My euphoria at beating thor carried me through the rest of the matches and the only time I lost, was when nat manged to grab me by both legs from the floor and cartwheel on top of me to land with a knee at my throat. 

‘not bad but you need to remember the element of surprise!’ she cackled, climbing off me – ‘I’ll teach you tomorrow! – have to go – I have a meeting with Starkie’ she called back – high fiving Em on the way out and calling to FRI to bring the lift up. 

I flopped down on the mat and Em came from the doorway to lie down next to me – handing me a Twix . 

‘FRI said you had drawn the short straw when I was on my way in so I nipped out to get my fave princess some sugar and a bottle of water…’ she laughed. 

‘water, really – I need something a bit stronger than that Em!’ I joked 

‘I know; that’s why I also nicked this from my parent’s cupboard before I left’ she said – producing a hipflask of whiskey from underneath her jacket. 

‘You’re learning well sthandwa’ (‘my love’ in xhosa – the Wakandan language) 

I laughed and took a glug of the fiery liquid. 

I heard footsteps outside the door – carol – bugger – I. hastily sat on the metal flask before they entered. 

They looked at me suspiciously but greeted Em and said 

‘you’d better go and have a shower before you work on that speech – beating Thor is pretty sweaty work…’ then raised their eyebrows at me and left. 

I flopped back down with a sigh, then kissed Em quickly and went off to wash and change. 

I came down later with joggers and a t shirt on, and flopped down on the sofa next to Em who was talking to Nat about doing a regular column in her Queer alliance newsletter. 

‘hi muffin,’ (a long story involving an elaborate lie on Peter’s part as to the disappearance of my pancake, muffins stuffed down his nose by me and much laughing by em – the nickname stuck) 

She said and put an arm round me. 

‘how’s your speech going?’ 

‘good I think – nearly finished – can you read it out for me so I can hear it?’ I pleaded and she sighed – ‘ok – thanks Nat!’ 

‘Hehem’ Em cleared her throat and straightened the paper like a professional speaker-person 

‘Hello feminists! First of all I'd like to thank all of you for taking time out of your day to come and hear this! I was absolutely honoured to be asked to come and give a speech – and I was delighted to discover you all think I'm a feminist icon! I'm just here to tell you that whether it’s inventing, or scientific discovery, or using garrotting wire to strangle Thor – don't ask about that one – or any other paths you want to take that are traditionally male dominated, or even ones that aren’t, if I can follow my dreams and live the amazing life that I get to every day then all of you can do it. I’m going to keep this short because I know that nothing is more boring than long speeches but I would like to introduce someone to all of you; this person has made my great life amazing and it is a real privilege to say that I can now introduce, MJ – my partner in crime and amazing girlfriend’ at this she curtseyed without looking up from the paper and smiled ‘she has managed to deal with my fiery temper!, my constant gunfire and inexpressible level of sarcasm. Defying the patriarchy isn’t just about proving we can do as much as men, it’s about proving that we have some skills that are unteachable, and the unteachable level of kindness, humour, patience and general brilliance of this person, is an example to all of womankind, and has made me the person I am today.’ 

she ended with a bow, flopped back down on the sofa and kissed me. I turned an embarrassing shade. 

Nat applauded, whooping and so did Red, Val and Peter, who had been supposedly playing Mario cart but had obviously been listening. I laughed and hugged Em and while looking over her shoulder, Carol popped their head in from the kitchen and gave me a thumbs up, then called out to the room at large: 

‘oi! Superheroes and enhanced teenagers ATTENTION PLEASE! Dinner is ready and Em your dad said you can stay so I've made extra - I'll drop you home tomorrow, FRI please alert all other people before it gets cold.’


	3. Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter's little problem....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you enjoy!

I woke up in the dark. checking the clock, the neon glow told me it was 5:52. Not too early. I got up and pulled on some leggings and an old hoodie, tying my scraggly morning-hair into a ponytail. Miraculously I managed to navigate between the various cupboards, desks and airbeds containing sleeping girlfriends, and crept down to the gym. I was just about to go to the supply cupboard to get some boxing gloves and practise my punches when I heard a quiet sob coming from the other end of the gym. I carefully made my way over and to my surprise, I saw it was peter. 

‘what's up uswiti,’ I whispered, sitting down next to him and putting my arm around him. 

‘nothing I just...well, I tried to ask out someone I’ve liked for ages today and they just laughed in my face and said I was pathetic – who did I think I was – spiderman! And I just got to thinking; when it comes out who I am – because it’s going to at some point; I mean look at red! Are people going to laugh in my face then as well, I mean - I'm not a typical superhero am I - I'm a bit of a joke round here – people beat me in every fight. I come down here every morning early to try and get stronger, but it makes no difference.’ 

He sagged as he said this and laid his head on my shoulder. I hugged him and replied; 

“well, first of all, whoever it was that turned you down isn’t worth it – you deserve someone who knows how sweet and funny and brilliant you are’ I patted his head 

‘second of all, superheroes come in all shapes and sizes so even if you aren’t as strong as the others you have things nobody else has too - I mean you can stand on the fucking ceiling! Who else can do that!’ he laughed weakly ‘and anyway – if you’re worried and you absolutely have to buy into all the historically entrenched patriarchal tradition of toxic masculinity then why don’t I teach you some ways to beat us. And last of all petey boi, you are the youngest out of all of us so that will probably be a big part of it all.’ 

‘now go back to bed, and wash your face and I swear to pretend this never happened – ok?’ 

He nodded, pulled himself up and stumbled off upstairs. 

I rubbed the tiredness out of my eyes. 

‘FRI can you put the kettle on please - I need to make some coffee. ‘ 

5 minutes later I was setting down a cup of steaming black caffeine on the bench in the gym and pulling on my gloves. I practised my stances, punches and kicks on the punchbag for another hour, drinking the rapidly cooling coffee, then jumped in the shower and got dressed. By the time I got back to the kitchen, to my surprise, nobody was there yet. I grinned deviously. 

“FRI please can you yell as loudly over your speakers as possible; GET UP YOU LAZY BUTTHOLES WE HAVE WORK TO DO’ 

‘As you wish miss shuri;’ said the irish lilt. I covered my ears as tightly as possible as my voice blared out of FRI’s speakers; 

‘GET UP YOU LAZY BUTTHOLES WE HAVE WORK TO DO!!’ 

I heard three resounding crashes which I knew were clint, pete and Bruce falling out of bed from surprise, one scream from Val and several gunshots and the thwack of a knife being thrown into a door which was quite obviously Nat. 

About 15 minutes later, a stream of disgruntled and sleep ruffled people filed into the kitchen, all middle fingering me as they went past. I just sat on the island smiling sweetly and sipping a fresh coffee. Em was the last to arrive, having washed and dressed in some of my clothes (she forgot her own – flaky idiot) 

‘touché’ she laughed, and I did a mock curtsey and doffed the imaginary hat again. 

‘this is a bit of a bummer’ I said 

‘wait what is?’ she asked 

‘well, you look better in that outfit than I ever have!’ I laughed 

‘i might keep it then,’ she said, swishing her bob and grabbing an apple from the artfully placed fruit bowl... 

I hopped down from the island and leaned against it to finish my coffee. I caught peter’s sleepy eyes and winked, then signed at him – meet me in the gym at 10 and we’ll do some practise. He smiled feebly and gave me a thumbs up, then sat down and preceded to eat an entire croissant in 1 bite.


	4. Part 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Big surprise coming up....

A few hours later I was just taking Pete and MJ through some rotating kicks when the alarm went off. We heard Cap on our earpieces 

‘all units report, this is a 23-4-56-895 code emergency - I'm afraid we’ll need all agents. Please lock down the building and proceed to the roof to await further instruction. 

‘i’m sorry we have to go sthandwa – there's an emergency. Please, please just stay safe – we'll deal with it.’ I call out the last few words over my shoulder as I suit up, metal armour and laser blasts melding to me as I run. Peter is beside me in full mask and suit as we sprint to the lift. FRI doesn’t even wait for instructions but sends us up to the roof immediately. Everyone is there, Thor with Mejor, carol, Clint, Nat and Red in full catsuits, guns akimbo and Val with her sword gleaming in the morning light. 

‘Right. Here is the situation as we know it; there are 1, maybe 2 ships above us, 13 minutes till impact and civilians locked down in the tower. We need to protect them and get this done with minimal fuss and maximum efficiency.’ Carol seemed on edge; it seemed a simple mission but there was something worried in her expression 

For the next 12 minutes we all waited on tenterhooks until we saw a ship approaching. a funnel was released and people, well, creatures came pouring out onto the roof where we stood. I send blast, after blast into the crowd, cleaving a path for Val, carol and thor to combat them face to face. The battle was swift. Soon there was only one left on our side; backed into a corner by carol I was sure it was dealt with. But suddenly they had been thrown backwards, motionless against the cold tarmac rooftop. The creature turned toward me, its strange, emotioneless eyes met mine and I cursed myself for discarding my guns. Well. I wasn’t going down without a fight. 

‘just watch me little white girl.’ I muttered. I flung myself onto it and knocked the gun from its hands, I spun around and took a hard kick but it blocked me. We fought and parried and punched until I couldn’t take it anymore. My legs flew out from under me and it was advancing. It was the end. 

‘I’m sorry Em’ I whispered a solitary tear falling down my face. 

‘just know I tried’ 

But the alien fell back. collapsed in a heap. And lit up by the sun from behind, like a halo, Em was standing, she was wearing magnificent silver/blue armour and a white cloak was billowing behind her. Her hand out, holding it down with some clear, blue tinged shield force while it struggled. 

‘you have nothing to apologise for.’ she said simply. Fire blazing in her eyes. 

A shout from behind the roof went up. The others came running round to meet us. Clint went straight to Carol and carried them back inside to the MedBay and the others stared in wonderment at Em. She didn’t look up until Red threw it of the roof with a blaze of dawn and it hit the road below. 

I stood up slowly. Then ran at Em. I kissed her. The force of me crashing into her unbalanced her for a second but she recovered quickly and put her arms around my neck, running her hands through my hair. I felt the power surging through her. 

We broke apart, arms still around one another, Onlookers agog. But the moment was broken when an astonished Thor dropped mejor on his foot and scream-swore hopping around in agony. We all laughed and retreated back inside. 

A few hours later, gathered around Carol’s bed as I tended to their concussion, there was much excited chatter 

‘did you know you could do that’ 

‘what even was it’ 

‘does this mean you’re one of us?’ 

‘I...I don’t know,’ said Em 

‘i’ve never done it before, but somehow when I was bullied at school, I could always hold them off, never let them too near so I suppose that was just it kind of coming out in me, but I've never felt as strong, or needed it as much as I did today so I suppose I never used it.’ 

‘what about the armour?’ Peter asked, in awe of his suddenly powerful friend. 

‘i don’t know, I just went up in the lift after you - I couldn’t let you do it on your own and I just knew that there was some way I could help and as I stepped out it just kind of melded onto me, I heard this voice in my ear, telling where I was needed and I just went’ 

‘that’s your INES’ interjected red, 

‘she’s the battle support system – most of the avengers have one built into their armor - mine’s callef INES – this is proof’ she said excitedly! 

‘you really are one of us!’ 

As was, it appeared, our custom, we ordered pizza that night, and ate it all around the kitchen table. Carol was better, tired but conscious and we filled them in on the details, as well as Tony, who had been at a conference in Paraguay at the time of the attack. 

‘and then she was just there – holding it down with some blue force’ I finished, taking a huge bite of margherita and looking into Em’s awkward but excited face and smiling. 

‘my shero’. 

‘Well, I have to say it does sound awfully like you’re one of us Em!’ Carol smiled – they shook Em’s hand then started to talk about the logistics of school, family, when and how to tell them and all sorts of other stuff that we all went through when we were first outed as enhanced. 

I zoned out after a while and just watched Em’s enchanted face. She had hidden it well, but I knew that she had been jealous of us when we had our powers. But now she was one of us. And, I thought with a smile, a pretty badass one; must be one of the strongest here. That was my girl. 

Nat saw me staring with pride at nudged me 

‘you picked a good one Shuri. No doubt about that – and I reckon with a bit of training she might even be a match for me...’ she said with a grin and a playful shove. I shoved her back and, once again; true to form - we both toppled off our seats and landed on the floor. 

‘yeah you think so? Well I think that with a bit of training my girl could easily beat us all!’ i joked 

‘ah to be a fool in love!’ laughed nat as we climbed up. 

It was then that I realised. OH MY F-ING GOD I WAS. I was in love! I loved Em with all her stupid eyebrow wiggles, and her QA newsletter, the way she had fallen so well into place with my family. The way her powers had been shown when i was in danger. 

Later that night; she was staying over again, when everyone was asleep I decided I couldn’t wait anymore. 

‘Em, you awake,?’ I whispered 

‘Hell yeah!’ I heard a reply 

‘Come here’ 

‘why’ 

‘just come - I need to see your face when I say this’ 

‘ok’ 

Her beautiful face, lit with moonlight from the window popped up at the end of my bed. 

‘ ok. Em, I realised something today. When you saved me, or at least, just after. I’ve never felt this way about anyone before and I think...’ 

‘no wait stop,’ 

Her face was smiling 

‘i want to say this first and hell, I planned to say this first and you are not going to upstage me again Shuri! So, I hopw this is what you were going to say because otherwise it’ll be hella awkward but,’ she smiled, and tossed her hair out the way 

‘Shuri...shit I don’t know your last name, well anyway, I love you tosser, so much I think I'm going to burst. My power came out on that rooftop because I was so scared you would get hurt and I sure as hell wasn’t going to let that happen. So whether that’s what you planned to say or not. I love you.’ 

There was a little pause. I took her hand. 

‘Jesus Em don’t be so paranoid. Of course that’s what I was going to say. I love you too sthandwa. My love’.


	5. Part 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hi - I put the first four chapters up yesterday, but from now on I'm only going to do one a day because I go back to school and I don't want to run out before I can write more!

Two weeks after the incident on the rooftop, we were to be found lying on the sofa, across from red and val, and nat and maria, all watching a harry potter movie marathon and eating popcorn with our respective partners. Peter walked in and said 

‘FRI pause the film’. FRIDAY paused harry potter and we all extricayed ourse;ves from the sofa cushions and looked round in fury. 

‘Oi! Spiderling! What did you do that for!’ protested Red, as maria hastily coughed over the sound of Nat cocking one of her many guns. 

‘We need to have a little talk.’ said peter, a tad patronizingly. 

‘i realise that you are all in olove, and believe me I don’t want to crash couples night, but can you please, please not flaunt your ‘beautiful’ (he said this in air quotes) 

‘love at people who are less fortunate in the romantic department, and maybe give your skills at romance as assistance for your less skilled friends....just an idea...’ he raised an eyebrow. 

From then on commenced the large scale operation known as OGPBAG - prounounced ogg pee bag (Operation get Petey Boi a girlfriend). 

‘First of all, lets set down some ground rules, FRIDAY please record them, 

No calling me Petey Boi or Spiderling or anything like that whilst we are carrying out this plan. 

Please actually make this a proper plan as I know some of you have had escapades involving custard and the contents of the school foodwaste bins, looking at nobody in particlar’ 

‘FRIDAY please note he is glaring right at me before we continue’ I say, fighting to stay serious. 

‘ and last of all, none of you are allowed to speak to the girl in question, this will all be handled namelessly and hypothetically. Do you agree?’ 

Somehow, we all said in uniform ‘yes sir!’ and saluted. Then fell about laughing 

‘you just couldn’t keep a straight face could you’ said Peter, disgruntled which made us laugh even more 

‘WHAT! WHAT DID I SAY?’ he demanded, and val choked out 

‘Peter given that you are talking to three raging lesbians and one bisexual,’ at this she ruffled red’s hair, ‘i think it is safe to say we couldn’t keep a straight face if we tried!’ this was too much. 

‘need......to....stop laughing.....about...to.....EXPLODE!’ Em choked, and we all managed to calm down a bit. 

‘okay. Here's what we’re going to do...’ 

So that’s the story of how peter went to school that day with an earpiece in (Em had an exemption letter due to illness so Carol could take her through protocals and everything.) 

I feel like a secret agent – peter bond’ he joked as he walked in. 

We all looked at eachother. ‘will you tell him or shall I.’ Nat said, looking at us. We all gestured for her to go ahead. 

‘Peter given that you are an agent for the avengers, and your identity as ickle spiderboi, which is, incidentally your code name for this mission,’ he sighed audibly. 

‘is secret, i think we can say that you are a secret agent – how thick are you!’ 

‘okay; new rule’ he hissed over comms 

‘number 4. NO INSULTING CODENAMES OR INSULTING IN GENERAL. Now shut up I'm approaching school gates. visuals, on. 

Friday projected an image of his perspective as he walked into class. We saw the annoyance, Eugene, Red had buttslammed on that field trip and we all said ‘EEUUUUUGEEEEEEENNNEE’ and laughed. 

‘Okay ickle spiderboi,’ I said - I had a headphone set with a speaker wired up so I could feed him instructions. 

‘have you reached the target – if you have, cough, if not, two coughs.’ with that, peter let loose a volley of coughs and we all looked round confusedly; 

‘Peter what did that mean??’ I said urgently, waiting intently for a response. 

‘Nothing, I just needed to cough, now approaching target’ he whispered, and coughed once. 

‘Repeat after me....’ 

On balance, our first attempt didn’t go well, although, we did manage to resist the temptation to boobytrap him again....suffice to say, the custard stayed in the cupboard this time. 

We all hid in the shooting range as he came home, but FRIDAY gave us away. 

‘ET TU FRIDAY!’ Nat hissed in fury (a nod to Shakespeare) and she started handing out guns - ‘just in case...’ 

So when, a minute later, an irate peter burst through the door, we all turned on him with firearms aimed at him, he had to tone it down a bit. 

‘Please lower your various weapons, ESPECIALLY YOU NAT AND VAL, ‘ said through gritted teeth. I noticed that Val had pulled out the dragon fang, and Nat had produced a gigantic spear. 

We sighed and laid down all the weapons. Then Peter raised an eyebrow at Nat, who sighed and produced seven more guns, a watch containing garrotting wire, a small axe and three knives that had been variously hidden about her person. 

‘now we’re going to have another little talk about NEVER, EVER HELPING YOUR FRUENDS ROMANTICALLY EVEN IF THEY ASK FOR IT BECAUSE YOU ARE TERRIBLE AT ROMANTIC ADVICE – GOD KNOWS HOW YOU ALL GOT GIRLFRIENDS.’ he said. and stormed out past the unarmed, sheepish group. 

So that was when we were forced to sign an official contract stating that if we ever tried to interfere with Peter’s love life again, we would be webbed to the ceiling for three weeks, and force-fed flies. 

‘well that was a waste of time wasn’t it.’ Sighed Maria and clicked play on harry potter again.


	6. Part 6

Carol was at the end of their tether. 

‘Right, everyone, I couldn’t give a tiny rat’s arse about your powers or ‘enhancement’ you are all just a load of ANNOYING TEENAGERS NOW LISTEN TO ME!!!’ they yelled. 

We all stood sheepishly in a feminist slogan-clad rabble that had been arguing about who had the most superior powers, which had culminated in Nat threatening everyone with several different murder tactics involving cranberry juice... 

Carol took a deep breath and looked firmly at us 

‘are you ready to listen now?’ they asked 

‘yes’ we all muttered’ 

‘i SAID are you ready to listen to me’ they said, flexing muscles threateningly, 

‘yes, auntcle Carol’ we all said in a singsong voice. 

‘okay. Now – this is how it's going to work today; you all have comms for if you get lost, and we are meeting back in the café at 6. Now, anyone under 18, so that’s you Peter, Red, Shuri and Em, must stay with someone else and val, even though you are over 18, I would appreciate it if you didn’t go off on your own either. Now. don’t be late back, or I am going to miss the drag race and you do not want to see me angry. 

So that’s how we all ended up piled in a tiny minibus, fighting for space on our way to the women’s march. 

On balance, apart from the wracking nerves of doing my speech later, it was a really good day; we marched about 3 miles, then everyone in the crowd; there must have been a few hundred, dispersed into coffee shops along the street for refreshment. 

Em and I separated off into a small tearoom and crashed down on some chairs at a small table, which promptly collapsed from the force of two enhanced teenagers. After a lot of apologies and a promise to replace the chairs, we sat down gingerly on two more, which luckily did not collapse and ordered drinks and cake from the surly looking waitress. 

We were enjoying an in-depth conversation about goats when I noticed, from leaning over to pick up my coat, that peter was sitting at a table nearby, laughing with a girl I didn’t recognise; she was wearing a pink felt coat and doc martens, a bobble hat on her wavy head. Her hair was dyed turquoise at the ends, and was wavy and short, a sort of light brownish colour. 

‘em look!’ I hissed, pointing at him. 

‘no, Shuri leave him alone! She looks nice and we want him to have a proper chance!’ she hissed back. 

‘Fine. but only if we can tease him when we get home’ I sighed. 

‘AGREED, now lets get out of here before he sees us!’ 

She grabbed my hand, threw some money on the table and we shot out of the shop. 

The street was less crowded now, so we wandered down in the autumn sunlight. We hadn’t had a chance to eat our cake, so I bought two ice creams from a stall and we licked them as we wandered down the street. 

‘i wonder what she’s like,’ mused Em 

‘i don’t know - we’’ll find out later I suppose!’ I nudged her. 

She took my hand as we walked on past, it felt odd, but nice. I suddenly remembered; 

‘OH, BOLLLOCKING BOLLOCKS MY SPEECH!’ I yelled. We ran, sprinting round the corner, crashing into bins and nearly getting run over by a few buses, down the street and saw a stage and a podium erected in the middle of the square. 

‘ah and right on cue, avenger, princess, and all-round kickass role model, may I introduce.....’ 

The crowd cheered and Em handed me my speech. I got up on stage, transformed into my fighting armour, and saw her whooping with the rest. She signed at me; ‘you can do it sthandwa!’ and I grinned. 

‘hi everyone! Its so great to see you here today!.....’ 

When I was finished, a great crowd of people pressed in on me to sign autographs or take selfies, I dragged Em forward and a press photographer took photos of us laughing and taking mock fighting stances. (I hadn’t been able to change my speech as her identity was still secret, so she was just playing my girlfriend today) 

When it was all over and someone else had taken the stage, I transformed back and we snuck down a side street for some privacy. 

Em put her arms up around my neck and kissed me ‘you did amazing Sthwanda, and I have a surprise for you; um... Kudala ndifunda isiXhosa kuwe - mhlawumbi ngoku singathetha ngasese! Ndiyakuthanda, ikeyiki (I've been learning xhosa for you, maybe now we can talk in private! I love you, muffin) 

‘ndiyakuthanda nam’ (love you too) 

I took her hand again and we stepped out into the warm sunlight. It was an amazing day. 

‘Wow #1 you certainly made a big splash with the press - I think that little speech of yours went well!’ 

Nat held a newspaper, reading quotes from the front page as me and Em lay on the sofa laughing at the misspellings and over-glorification of our life; they made it out like I lived in, well, a house of superheroes. It really isn't like that, I thought, watching tony trying to teach Bruce how to braise cabbage in the kitchen, and Red and Spidey thrashing val on the Wii, and Nat holding a knife to Clint’s throat on top of him on the floor after he had crashed put of a vent with no warning.... ok it was kind of like that... 

‘Oy ickle Spidey.’ I yelled axross the room. He ;ooked away and Val destroyed his alien. 

‘ah damnit val – cheater' he did the I'm watching you’ gesture thenbounced over to see what I wanted. 

‘So, wait first of all, FRI please make sure all core avengers are here right now...’ I said, and a minute later they came grumbling through the door, Thor with his eyes red – we all looked inquiringly; ‘i was just watching friends’ explained Thor defensively ‘monica and chandler just propo.....’ and he burst back into tears. 

I sighed and continued with the matter at hand. 

‘Hehem, I have called you all here to discuss, what I think, is a very important matter.’ I started gravely. 

‘at approximately ten minutes past two yesterday afternoon, whilst Em and i were enjoying tea in a café along the march street, we happened to notice something very odd.’ 

Here I paused, and started pacing. 

‘That strange sight, that had fallen prey to our eyes was Ickle spiderling here, talking to , and may I add laughing with, an extremely pretty girl, so I thought to myself, what possible motive could he possibly have for this downright strange occurrence.’ 

At this point I stopped my pacing 

‘i have come to the conclusion that Peter here, may have a girlfriend – FRIDAY HIT IT!’ I shouted 

Suddenly, ‘ceeeelebrate good times come on!’ came blasting out of the speakers, and a shower of confetti fell on us. 

‘now peter please explain.’ I said, gesturing him forward and flopping down next to Em, laughing. 

He sighed heavily and stood up muttering; ‘God I hoped it wouldn’t come to this but. ‘ 

‘Touche number 1, touche. No, that girl is not my girlfriend although I hope someday, she may be; her name is Arya, I met her yesterday, she is very nice and I asked her out for a coffee. We had a great time, and we’re meeting again on Friday.’ he said. 

‘and no before you ask, you are not meeting her for a very long time because I do remember the earpiece incident and I do not want that happening again because I really like her and I think I have a shot. He finished with a small bow, leapt up onto the ceiling, and through muffled bangs we deduced he had made his way through the vents back to his room. 

‘i must say I think you handled that very elegantly mr Poirot.’ remarked red, doffing an imaginary hat, and with that, once again, we fell about in hysterics. 

‘right, yes, yes, well handled #1’ said Nat from the kitchen, 

‘спасибо большое, # 4’ (thankyou very much, #4) i replied. 

‘Теперь все вы, приходите поскорее съесть это спагетти-болоньезе, или я оторву ваши симпатичные головочки! (now all of you come eat this spag bol quickly or i will rip your sweet little heads off.)’ she said. and we all hastened to the kitchen, lest we have our heads removed by the scary Russian lady.


	7. Part 7

‘when did you all tell eachother you loved eachother?’ I asked, my tongue protruding and my forehead furrowed as I carved delicately into the metal. 

I was in the lab, making a present for MJ. Nat was there, replacing the worn-out trigger on her favourite .22 calibre pistol, with the pearl edging, and Red, trying to work out what would happen if you mixed two elements together (suffice to say I did it last week, and the results were....shall we say...explodey?). Val was waiting for her, polishing the dragon fang and a few interns were wafting around doing various stuff. 

‘well, I think you remember the rooftop battle where my identity came out...’ said red, pouring the last of the chemicals into the same tube. There was a short pause where I explained to her what was about to happen and we speedily vacated the lab, lest we become engulfed in rotten-egg gas (sulfur) and waited for the fumes to dissipate. 

‘basically....cough......it was then....cough............val said I think I love......cough....you and I said.....i know I love you............’ red rasped - ‘and then I was basically outed, in many ways, to the national press. What about you, nat?’ 

‘well I mean, I never really understood why it was then, but I was just practising my boxing stances, with some, hehem, music and I have always maintained that modern music was a load of crap and there’s been nothing good since 80’s heavy metal, but um. Well fine; she caught me listening to Ed Sheeran and singing along.’ she paused for us to have a brief crying-on-the-floor laughter break, then continued 

‘i don’t know, then she just said “i lobe this song,” then held my hand “but not as much as I love you” and kissed me – no clue why it happened but I always knew I had loved her so I said it back and we got on with our lives’ she finished casually. We rolled our eyes in unison 

‘Ever the romantic’ said Val, sticking her head back into the lab and announcing the smell had gone but we forgot to evacuate the interns so they had all passed out but would be fine in a minute... 

We all went back into the lab, and I put the finishing touches to my present for em. I had been working on it ever since the battle when she discovered her powers and saved me. 

It was a pair of gloves. all made of silver, with lapis lazuli edging and carving on top with the words ‘Uqinile sthandwa sam’ (you are strong my love) etched into the top. They were lined with a substance I had created that caught and enhanced avenger’s strength; I had made a pair of fingerless leather gloves for red to enhance her dawn, and val had a necklace with it in. I had even given carol a badge containing it for their birthday. 

I enlisted Red to help me wrap them up; delicate tasks, metal carving aside, are not my strong point. 

‘these are amazing one, you must have spent ages on them’ she said in awe as she wrapped them. 

‘thanks, two’ I laughed ‘they have taken a while actually – since the battle. ’ 

‘i think she’s going to love them.’ 

‘i was thinking of giving them to her next week; it’s our 6 month anniversary – I bet her that if we got to six months I would attempt to cook her dinner, so I'm hoping those detract from the inedible mess she’s going to have to eat’ 

‘i’m sure they will’ she laughed, taking the other one and wrapping it 

‘i’m probably going to regret this but do you want to do a practise on me before the big night?!’ 

‘YES thank you - I'm planning to do mini bruschetta, then salmon and asparagus with some kind of citrus topping that I saw in tony’s Delia book, then profiteroles for dessert’ 

‘well I mean that sounds good, so I would maybe get Carol to take you through it, then get us all to taste test it?’ 

That is why I was to be found swearing and burning myself on various apparatus, refusing help as it would mean forfeiting the bet and just generally making a cyclone-esque mess of the kitchen. My practise had gone reasonably well, apart from the charring of the profiteroles while I was celebrating the success of the first two courses. I hastily consulted the timetable that Carol had drawn up for me. SHIT. I thought, the salmon should have come out five minutes ago. I peeped in the oven, terrified but it looked fine so I yanked it out, having to replace all the trays that I had dislodged a minute later, and finished whipping the cream for the profiteroles. 

We heard FRIDAY open the door downstairs so everyone rushed to help me tidy up before Em arrived. By the time she opened the door to the kitchen, it was spotless. An immaculately laid (courtesy of maria, who seemed to be the only one to know what a fork was around here) two-seater table with a candle, a vase of white roses and two chairs stood in the middle of the room. I gestured her to sit down; 

‘wow, you look beautiful Em,’ I smiled, she was looking beautiful; she wore a green blazer with pink trousers and a creamy shirt underneath. Her hair was twisted up behind her head and held with an ornamental clip and her make up was flawlessly done. We had attempted to do mine but none were skilled enough so I just ended up wearing none, and a wrap front dress that Val had forced me into, which actually looked; according to them, very nice. I had braided gold through my hair and Em touched it, grinning 

‘i like it sthandwa’ she said. 

I put the finishing touches to the last dish and bunged it in the fridge for later, then placed her starter in front of her, poured her a drink and said, rather apprehensively ‘dig in!’ 

All in all, although it was the hardest thing I have ever had to do, involving several battles, I think I can count my cooking that day a success. By the time she left, the entire evening had gone, to my surprise, almost entirely without hiccups, until I noticed a blinking light on one of FRI’s cameras which meant that the others were watching me. While Em was in the loo, I gave the camera the middle finger, then picked up one of Nat’s guns that she had left lying around, fortunately with a silencer attached, and shot out the camera. From there on, it was the perfect night. The food was delicious, even though I say it myself... 

Emily had been stunned when I gave her the gloves. She had unwrapped them carefully and slid them onto her hands in wonder. ‘well, I suppose I'll be using these on old Eugene,’ she joked, pointing a finger at a book on the side table, and surrounding it in her force, lifting it up, then putting it back down, she smiled at her fingers. ‘they make it easier,’ she whispered, tracing the words with her fingers, then hugging me 

‘i love them sthandwa, they’re amazing’ came her muffled voice 

‘i suppose it’s time for my present; sorry it isnt as good as these!’ 

And she handed me a square parcel. inside was a framed painting of the two of us, both looking amazing in full battle armour, me shooting a blast of sonic out of the frame, and her holding a ball of force. 

‘a kind of reminder of that day’ she laughed 

‘i know it’s not...’ but her sentence was cut short as I kissed her. 

‘i love it. It’s amazing!’ I said. 

That was possibly the best night of my life. We talked and laughed, and she said the food was so good she couldn’t believe I made it - not sure whether to be pleased or offended at that! 

A few days later, Em brought in a similar square parcel for everyone. FRIDAY called everyone in and she handed them out. 

‘This is a kind of thank you for everything you’ve helped me with and done for shuri – God knows you deserve better! But I hope you like them, you can open thwem now.’ 

Inside each parcel was a smaller version of the painting she had done for me, but with each different person in their element. 

She was deluged in a sea of hugs, and Carol suggested that we all hang ours in the sitting room, so we can see them all the time. Everyone loved the idea and tony went jogging off to find some nails. Everyone loved them, they all exclaimed over eachothers and passed them around. 

‘They’re amazing Em,’ I said ‘they must have taken you ages’. 

She smiled her dimple-cheeked smile. and i had never felt so in love.


	8. Part 8 or chapter 8 - can't remember!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> idk honestly it's just some of my book - I've lost track

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry I haven't posted for a while - if anyone is actually keeping track - it's garbage haha

We were all gathered in the gym, doing various workouts and training, Red and Em trying to fight each other but failing because each could hold each other off, and they couldn’t get anywhere. I was taking a break and chatting to Nat about a training programme for Em, when Carol and Tony came in looking a bit fed up. 

‘okay everyone, listen up, or.....get up off the ground Thor – whichever comes first. I have some news to announce which I know you aren’t going to like but, well, you’ll just have to deal with it. Since there has been no coverage of us for a while, the press are leaning on us to do something. So, tomorrow, we’re having an open day. Em and Pete, you will be here, but you’re going to have to be in full cover and others, you’re going to be split between being tour guides, and basically showing off in exhibition matches, demonstrations and a Q&A section. We will be allowing only a select few of press and some members of the public in a first come first served. Since we don’t know who we’re going to be letting in, our interns and security are going to be guarding entrances to all places they can’t go, just in case so please make sure you have your card on you at all times so it can’t be nicked from you.’ I am very busy trying to organise this, so Tony will now field ten minutes for questions.’ Carol stated, and turned and walked out of the room. 

Tony sagged at the number of hands up, and angry faces. 

‘MJ, yes?’ he sighed 

‘So, if we haven’t released my identity to the public and my armour doesn’t cover my face, how are we going to keep it secret and also, since I haven’t really shown any skills at anything in particular yet and I can’t really be a tour guide, what am I going to do?’ 

‘well, we think you will probably be in the demonstration as your powers are quite visually impressive, and then we can put you in the Q&A with a voice inhibitor so they can’t work out who you are from your voice – we'll just switch it to Carol’s or mine or something – the least the public know about you the best and your armour is quite androgynous, so we can withhold your gender as well as name in this situation, as for covering up your face, I'm sure your dear girlfriend can come up with some kind of addition to your armour that will be a creative solution. Anyone else?’ 

As he answered various questions and explained more of what was going to happen, Em and I started to discuss methods of face-covering, and finally decided on some kind of full-head mask, like Peter’s, in the same colour of her armour, and went off to make a start. 

The next day, Em, me, Val and Pete were standing at the front of Stark’s waiting for the incoming hordes. We had decided that it was good press to have our two non-identified superheroes as tour guides, but they wouldn’t speak as we showed everyone around. We would split into two groups, Val and Petey would take the press around, and Em and I would take the public. 

‘hold onto your hats, or masks in some case, here they come’ I muttered. 

The gates were opened, and a small stream of paparazzi fought their way in, taking photos of the four of us in full armour. Val and Pete split away, taking this group, and Em and I waited, in ominous silence, for the public to come through. 

Once there was a group of about 15 in front of us, the gates were closed, and I introduced us. 

‘hi everyone, I am Shuri, princess of Wakanda, and this is our newest recruit, Blue lynx.’ Em waved at them. 

‘any questions you have as we go through, please address to me, as Blue is not able to answer, as we need to protect their identity. There will be a Q&A time later when you can ask any big questions but please feel free to ask about anything you see as you go past.’ I reeled off, turning the fake smile up to 100%. 

We took them inside and first took them through the museum, pausing for them to read the big boards detailing our skills and acievements. 

I walked over to look at the newest one. It had a picture of Em holding the alien down when her powers first showed (we had to recreate it, along with some special effects as we didn’t have a photo of the actual moment – the alien in that was actually Peter, in a greenscreen suit). Underneath it said; Blue Lynx; newest recruit. Their powers first showed themselves in a battle fought only weeks ago. 

Their powers are a shield force, which can be used offensively or defensively, and surrounds an object, allowing them to move it wherever they like. 

Blue lynx likes; 

Cooking 

Thrashing their girlfriend on the fighting mat (I felt a little indignant at this) 

Drawing 

Doctor who. 

Blue lynx thoroughly dislikes: 

Bullying 

Knives (which is difficult seeing as they live part time with black widow) 

Stereotyping. 

I grinned at this; we had written it up yesterday and I was mildly proud of my black widow gag. people were pressing in on me, eager to read Em’s profile so I stepped back. 

‘Well at least we know it’s a boy if they have a girlfriend but really; cooking and drawing, he’s a bit of a sissy – oh look, he knows it too – they've put that he dislikes stereotyping as well I mean come on he’s acting like a girl’ some crapweasel said. In a flash i was onto him, a knife at his throat saying 

‘if you carry on like this you may be losing some rather important limbs but please; continue to stereotype and enforce your close minded, toxic masculinity onto my friend. I'll be right behind you ready to act. I let go of him and he collapsed on the floor shaking. 

‘not bad for a girl.’ I said, raising an eyebrow as Nat had taught me, rolling up my sleeves and crossing my arms, standing as authoritatively as possible over the snivelling, weaselly little, well, weasel. 

‘Thanks, uswiti, but I would recommend not threating to remove limbs or we may lose vital financial support – just a suggestion’ Em whispered over comms 

‘i’ll think about it sthandwa,’ I laughed, forgetting to keep my voice down, damn, but nobody heard me. 

After the museum, we carried on up to the labs, the interns introduced themselves and showed them around the various experiments. Bruce explained some of the finer points of scientific research at Stark’s and transformed into Hulk to show them. 

The visit to the labs was brief, then we made our way up to the training floor. Everyone was in their element. Val was practising sword positions on a dummy, spinning round and landing a millimetre away from the leather outside, Val was shooting a target, 10 bullseyes in the same hole, Clint was shooting flaming arrows and Thor was wielding Mejor. We toured around all of these people, who variously explained their powers and what they were doing, then last of all we proceeded to the combat mats where Red and Carol were waiting. Val and Pete, as spiderling, were already there with their papparazzi. 

‘right.’ said carol ‘Now you’re all here, we have decided to do a volunteer demonstration. Each superhero will pick a visitor and showcase their powers in a match. Now, avengers, seeing as the visitors have no weapons training, weapons are banned, but you can use physical strength and any powers you may have. Black widow, you’re up first.’ 

Nat walked up to the floor, impressive in her black catsuit, and when Carol raised an eyebrow, she sighed and stripped herself of weapons. As she layed down her hand guns, knives, axe, garrotting wire, rifle and spear, Carol explained; 

‘Black widow was one of our first recruits, her skills are in weaponry, as you can see, martial arts, and ground-fighting. Who would like to try and fight her?’ 

Nat stood with her hands on her hips as a volley of hands flew into the air. ‘You’ she said, pointing at a fairly young man, with rippling muscles, who I recognised as the crapweasel who had insulted Blue lynx. Well, I thought, smirking, he’s going to get his comeuppance. 

He jogged, smirking, onto the mat, took a bow and waved at the crowd as carol blew the whistle. Nat had him in an armlock before you could blink. she threw him away, but held onto his forearm and he swung back. He ran at her and she did a handstand, wrapping her legs around his neck, and swinging up, the force of her hitting him made him fell to the floor. She flipped him over and held him down, a knee to his throat and an elbow pressing into his stomach, his leg twisted away. 

She shook her red hair out of her eyes. ‘who’s next?’ The crowd exploded with applause and she stood up, brushed herself down and walked out, supporting the weaselturd with her. 

‘Thank you widow for that excellent demonstration, and sir, if you had any medical complaints, we will take you to the MedBay shortly’ carol reeled off. 

“right, next up, our newest recruit; blue lynx – any volunteers?’ 

Em squeezed my hand, then walked confidently out into the ring, but I saw she was nervous, her foot was twitching. 

Being unable to speak, she pointed a finger at another young man, slightly less muscley than the first, but seemingly brim-full of macho-bravado. I could see why she had chosen him, he was wearing a suit and tie, but was so overconfident he looked like he needed a bit of a beating. That was my Em – she didn’t do things by halves. 

“a quick note, sir, before we get into this next match, we would appreciate it if you did not try to unmask blue lynx as their identity is not yet released to the public, and would like it to stay that way for security reasons. If you attempt to unmask them, you will be removed from this building; do you understand?’ He nodded 

Carol blew the whistle. The man pulled off his jacket and took a mock boxing stance. Em sighed, one hand on her hip and pointed lazily at him. He was engulfed in force, fighting against the blue bubble. She left him there for a minute, for photographs to be taken, then let him come crashing down. She flew onto her knees and wrestled him, he put one hand on the floor for support, but she whisked it away and when he came crashing down, she held him there. Two seconds later, she stood up, and they returned to the crowd. 

The next few matches saw the remainder of the crapweasel brotherhood beaten to pulp by Val, red and finally me. Thor, Clint and tony were a little gentler on their victims and finally, it was peter’s turn. 

He stood in full spiderman mask and pointed at a head in the crowd, she came forward and we saw it was the girl he had been talking to in the coffee shop. They had since been on four ’dates’ and it seemed to be going really well. 

‘oh bollocking bollocks with cherries on top’ he swore over comms 

‘Remember you don’t know her!’ I hissed urgently and he gave a tiny undetectable nod. 

She came forward, took off her coat and stood face to face with him in the ring, tied her hair up and nodded to Carol that she was ready. 

Carol blew the whistle and peter leapt onto the ceiling, then came down on top of the girl, knocking her to the ground, but she wasn’t going down without a fight. She spun over and he flew away across the floor, they stood up and she executed a perfect judo throw over onto the floor, he flew 360 over and landed with a whoomph on the floor, the crowd cheered, but he was up and a trice and they went head-to-head. It lasted for ages, they were seemingly a perfect match, and eventually Carol blew the whistle. They broke apart and peter took the girls hand and led her into a bow, they returned from the mat. 

“See, that is a perfect example of the fact that although avengers have skills above the average human being, there are always people who can give us a real match; can we all please have three cheers for this wonderful young woman’ shouted carol and we all cheered. The brotherhood of crapweasels sulked in the corner. 

‘Now that brings us to a natural conclusion of matches, and we can proceed upstairs to commence the Q&A – everyone please follow me. 

As we called FRIDAY and ascended in the lift, I nudged Em. 

‘Good one Blue, you gave that doofus a proper ass-kicking that he deserved’ I whispered to her. 

‘Thanks, uswiti’ she whispered back over comms and briefly squeezed my hand; the lift was too crowded for anyone to notice though. 

We arrived in the conference room, and took our seats, avengers in a line at the front, Tony on a higher chair in the middle to be the referee, and rows for the visitors behind. 

‘A few notes, before we start; Spiderman and Blue lynx will be talking through a voice inhibitor, so the voice you hear will not be their actual voice. If you have a question, please raise your hand and I will call on you and please, no inappropriate or prying questions.’ Tony said. 

The first question, as anticipated, was aimed at Em. 

‘Blue lynx, do you think you will ever release your identity to the public?’ a harried reporter asked. 

To my surprise, it was Em’s voice that issued from her, a double bluff from Tony i suppose. Touche. Em, didn’t seem surprised so I suppose Tony had warned her. 

‘Well, we haven’t discussed that eventuality yet as I have only just been discovered but seeing as all the others have been outed in various ways, I assume that in due course, my identity will be revealed – however, don’t expect it too soon as spiderman here,’ Peter waved,’ has been hidden for a long period of time now.’ 

‘Princess, shuri?’ another voice came through the crowd 

‘There have been rumours that Red Dawn and Brunhilde Valkyrie are not the only queer icons in the avenger's team – some hints from your women’s day speech and eyewitness accounts from that day show you with a young woman, holding hands and acting as a couple – do you have any comments?’ Tony glared at him but I shook my head - i could deal with this one. 

‘i have never actively made an attempt to disguise my sexuality.’ I started 

‘many people have assumed of course, that I am heterosexual, but I have never felt the need to discuss it in public as I don’t believe that it is a defining aspect of my personality. As a pansexual, I tend to love people for their heart and their personality, rather than their gender.’ I chose my words carefully, ‘the young woman I was with that day is indeed my girlfriend, but to respect her privacy, I am going to make no further comments.’ I finished. 

The next few questions were easier things to answer; for val to transform into various shapes, for Red, when she knew about her dawn and for Clint, if he had always been good at archery before his powers showed themselves. 

Then someone asked why Nat was with us if she didn’t have any unusual powers. Bugger. but I needn’t have worried. 

‘i am part of the avengers family, despite not having any glowstick abilities for reasons that are not pertinent to public knowledge. But, however, please know that powers are not what makes someone an avenger, it is courage, kindness and acceptance that truly makes a person an avenger. and I may not have supposed superhuman powers, but I am very skilled at weaponry and I could kill you in one hundred and fifty seven different ways, at last count, with the lens of your camera so I count that as power.’ she finished, in a dignified tone. 

The rest of the day went mostly without hiccup, and by the time the hordes had left we were left, collapsed on the front step. 

Suddenly the girl who had almost beaten Peter, stepped out from behind the gate and made her way back. 

‘umm, princess Shuri,’ she asked nervously, 

‘Yes - sorry did you have a question’ I asked politely but inside; SHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT 

‘umm, yes I was just going to ask that,’ she took a deep breath. 

‘um, I'm sort of going out with one of the interns here; peter parker?’ she continued before I could give an answer 

‘and well, he said he was helping here today, so I came to surprise him, but he wasn’t here – he doesn’t strike me as a oerson who lies so I thought, how vould he be here but not and then I thought, well there’s only one person who is unamed here and’. But I saw where it was goung and cut her off 

‘please come inside’ I said indifferently. - but flashed her a pleading look and she followed me inside 

‘sorry but I thought I knew where this might be going and I thought we should discuss it in private – FRI can you please tell peter to come here urgently’ I said. 

A minutre later, he came down, yawning, but still in full spider kit, just without his mask saying 

‘shuri whats the problem, I was just getting changed and also PLEASe can you change the nicknames of FRI’s system, I am sick to the web of being called ickle spiderboi every time...oh shit’. He had seen Arya. 

‘uum I was just ummmm well I ummm hi arya!’ he said, sounding like Nat was threatening him with disembowlment again (he had stolen her cupcake, it was a whole thing...) 

‘so I was right’ she said softly. 

At that point, Carol and tony came down the stairs, took in the magnitude of the situation and peter introduced Arya. I explained. 

* 

‘so please, it is confidentisl information, and cannot under any circumstances be released – you understand?’ finished carol, when she had explained everything to Arya 

‘On a slightly more cheerful note, I understand that you are peter’s girlfriend?’ They said swiftly. Peter turned as red as his suit, and Arya blushed and avoided eye contact. 

‘Well...um’ she looked at Peter and made her mind up 

‘yes actually, I think I am’ she laughed. 

‘great! Would you like to stay for dinner? Our very own Black widow, Natasha, is cooking...’ They enquired 

‘Actually, that would be really nice,’ she said, grinning 

‘Pete never told me anything about his family so now I see why! It would be great to get to know you all’ she grinned, and we took her upstairs. 

* 

As soon as she had left everyone pounced on Peter, complimenting him on his impeccable choice of girlfriend and teasing him to within an inch of his life. But for once he didn’t seem to care – he was happy.


	9. Nombre nueve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hi - I expect nobody is keeping up with this but if you are - apologies for the gargantuan gap between last chapter and this one, enjoy!....

About a month later, a gigantic christmas tree was to be found, decked out in Tony’s revolting taste in baubles, shedding pine needles all over the floor, and the space underneath stuffed with oddly shaped parcels. It was Christmas Eve. 

Em was staying today and tomorrow because her dad had decided to go off with his new girlfriend, and Arya was planning to drop in later tomorrow for a bit. Everybody was in matching (ugh) pyjamas with their partners; a new tradition that we had to honour every year in the future (Carol) but we were all too cosy to worry about it. Nat and Maria, along with Peter, were taking up the smallest sofa, and me, Em, tiny white girl, Swordy girl, #6 and Yelena were squashed onto another one. Clint was at home with his family for the next two days and Tony insisted on a solitary Christmas, but Brucey and Thor were spread across the last sofa. 

As was another Christmas tradition, and old one this time, we were watching ‘one day’ a horrendously sad film which never failed to get us crying. Even Nat. 

I paused the film and said; 

“right, i think we need to get some fluids inside Thor and Bruce, or they may shrivel up from dehydration soon.’ 

Everyone looked at them. They were in total floods and had bright red eyes. They had been crying all through the movie. 

‘right, next year we either; pick a new film, banish you two from couples film night,’ peter looked up in protest at the name but then we reminded him that he had a girlfriend now and didn’t protest; just looked vaguely embarrassed for forgetting 

‘or you will get a grip on yourselves.’ 

Said Carol, a bite of frustration in their voice – it happened every year. 

‘Come on boys – take your pick – either go and watch SpongeBob SquarePants or stop blubbing.’ 

They nodded sheepishly and stopped crying. 

Me and Em went to refill our popcorn and make everyone hot chocolate while they pressed play on the film. 

‘merry Christmas sthandwa’ I whispered. 

‘you too, ikeyike.’ she smiled, and kissed me on the cheek. 

While we heated up the milk for hot chocolate, and got the marshmallows down from the cupboard, we made plans for tomorrow, and how to get some peace and quiet from the hordes. 

As we were mid-way through scheming, Bruce and Thor shuffled past in their matching tartan pyjamas, in tears once again. 

‘we were banished’ said Bruce moodily, and they shuffled off to their room to watch friends. 

We carried the tray of steaming cups over to the group and handed them around. I looked at Em, and she smiled, and put her fingers in mine. It was going to be a perfect Christmas. 

I should have known that that was a bit far-fetched. 

The next morning, we all woke up to an almighty crash and lots of scream-swearing. 

A second later FRIDAY’S voice came over the system. 

‘Captain Marvel would like to apologise for waking you all, and for the various screamed profanities. They merely dropped a gigantic turkey on their foot but they say not to worry and you will get your christmas dinner. 

Em and I giggled and I dropped back into bed. She came and sat next to me, handing me a small parcel as she came. 

‘i have something for you downstairs but I wanted to give you this in private’ she said, an excited note in her voice. She laid her head on my shoulder as I pulled the paper off the small box. I opened it and saw a thin gold chain, supporting a locket, it was engraved the word, ndiyakuthanda. I love you. 

Inside was a picture of the two of us on our first date, and a selfie we had taken just after em’s powers had shown, while she was still in armour. 

I had no words. I turned over and hugged her, burying my face in her mango-scented hair. when we broke apart, I put the chain around my neck and stroked it. I would wear it forever. We lay next to each other for another hour or so, just chatting happily, my head on her shoulder and hers resting on mine, our hands interlaced. 

By the time we had washed, dressed in our fancy Christmas clothes and walked downstairs, holding hands, everyone was waiting. 

‘where the hell were you – carol made us wait’ said Peter, stony faced, but we apologised and gave him his gift, and he forgave us. once we had all finished exchanging various presents, Nat coughed to get attention. 

‘ I have one last one that I would like to give in front of everyone.’ she handed maria a small parcel. Maria opened it; it was a small box. We all looked back at Nat, who was standing on one knee, smiling, looking nervous – that was a first. With bated breath we listened as she said; 

“Ria, I know I'm not very good at the romantic talk, but the way I feel when I'm with you makes me never want to leave you. I love you so much and I want to be with you forever.’ she gabbled, ‘So, if you’ll take me, I want to try and make you feel the same way for the rest of my life. Maria, will you marry me?’ our eyes snapped back to Maria, holding the ring, tears streaming down her face, but laughing 

‘go on then моя любовь!’ 

We all cheered, and Nat stood up and slid the ring onto Maria’s finger, then kissed her. 

I was right. Best Christmas ever. 

We were all lying across each other haphazardly on the sofa, stuffed with carol’s amazing Christmas lunch, and bedecked with tinsel and paper hats, discussing the wedding. 

‘So Nat, who’s going to be your best man?’ asked Thor, clearly hinting heavily. 

‘well, I thought, if she would consent to do it, I might ask Red....’ Nat said, with an enquiring glance at Tiny white girl, who promptly screamed and fell off her sofa. 

‘I'll take that as a yes’ she laughed and turned to Maria 

‘who’s going to be yours?’ 

‘umm, well I suppose, if they want to, I think your sister should be involved somehow...’ said maria. we all looked over at Yelena who was sitting next to carol, an arm around them – she looked pale and shocked, but was smiling 

‘okay then!’ she said, and we all whooped. 

Then Nat shushed us, looked at Maria, who nodded, and said. 

‘Well, we’ve been talking, and we thought that, if you would like to, would you officiate carol?’ She said tentatively, with a look at Danvers, who was hugging Lena in celebration They looked stunned. 

‘ 

Of course! I'd be glad to, but do you really want me to do that!?’ they asked, delighted 

‘well, I can’t think of anyone better!’ laughed Nat. 

‘oh, and by the way,’ said Maria turning back and talking to the group 

‘it’s in three weeks. ‘ 

‘WHAT’ we all screamed in unison. 

‘yep’ they said together and laughed. 

The next few weeks were frenzied lists of food, comparing endless wedding dresses and bridesmaids' clothes, picking flowers, chairs, and all sorts. We had unanimously decided that apart from their outfits and the food, which they were allowed to pick, we were going to organise everything as a surprise on the day. This provided certain logistical problems but by the night before, everything was sorted, and we were having a pamper party to get ready. 

Thor was on nail varnish replenishment, Peter was staying out of the way of the terrifying bridezilla party, Bruce on snacks and cheesy films, Em was in charge of hair dye touch ups, and styling in the morning, Red and Val were handing round face packs and all sorts of other beauty treatments, Carol was cooking dinner and I was painting everybody’s nails and practising make-up. 

‘So, are you nervous?’ I swished a layer of white over Maria’s thumb and waited for it to dry before starting on the delicate silver detailing. She blew on her other hand as she answered; 

‘you know, I'm not at all’ she laughed, looking over to where Em was inserting silver foil into Nat's roots to touch up her dye, and showing her various hair products to choose from in the morning, 

‘I'm really not, I thought I would be, but I look at her and I know she’s my soulmate’. I gently covered them in a layer of clear, then said 

‘that’s great - I think I actually know what you mean’ I glanced over at Em. 

“you’re all done now, OI, TINY WHITE GIRL AND DRAGON FANG – WHICH ONE OF YOU IS GOING FIRST?’ 

Val came to sit at the table, and I yelled out to thor for some violet and gold, he came bustling over a minute later and I got to work. 

‘wow Shuri, I never knew how good you were at this’ she laughed 

‘Hidden talents indeed...HANDS STILL PLEASE...i took a course in make up and cosmetics because everyone else had a job to do for this wedding and they asked me...FOR GOD’S SAKE VAL DO YOU HAVE A PROBLEM?’ I finished, as I smudged the damn nail again. She apologised a little warily and I finished up. I took a break after Val and assessed how many more I had to do; just mine, red’s, Em’s Carol’s and Nats, but most of those should be fairly simple. 

I got through them quickly; scarlet for Red, turquoise for MJ, Carol’s in blue with silver stars and mine in yellow with little flowers, and they all went off for their facepacks and beauty treatments until finally I got to Nat. 

‘So madame, what would you like today’ I enquired and laughed 

‘surprise me.’ she said, and looked away, ‘i don’t want to see until you’re done’. 

I screamed at Thor to bring the entire case and got to work. On one hand, I did black, with delicate patterns of spider’s webs in silver and white, then on the other hand I painted the same design but with rainbow webs instead. By the time I was finishing up, checking if they had dried, Carol was bringing round plates of spaghetti Bolognese and we were all watching ‘miss congeniality’ (Bruce’s choice) and having a great time. 

I had coconut and jasmine goop plastered to my face, and my nails painted, watching some kickass lady beating the shit out of her sexist partner, with my girlfriend's hand in mine. in other words - I was having a great time. 

FRIDAY woke us all up at 6 the following morning, and after grumbling a bit, we traipsed downstairs to find Carol, perfect as ever, who had been making canapes since four, and we started to get ready, we had decided to do it all on the roof, so we lugged all the chairs, and flowers, and a massive arch for the ceremony up, and set it all out. Eventually, the last thing to do was dress the brides. We had all helped pick Maria’s dress, a white mermaid cut gown, with a sweetheart neckline and lace, but nobody had seen what Nat had picked. I was passing Em pins and bands, hairspray and all sorts of other stuff to finish Maria’s hair off, whilst also doing her make up. As I puffed sparkly shit onto her face from a giant bottle, and spritzed perfume onto her, Thor came in, panting, and holding two daggers. When we looked at him pointedly, he explained that he had confiscated them from nat as she was a little on edge this morning, but what he had come to say was that she was ready for her hair and make-up. We finished up with maria, then packed up our cases and left Thor to keep Maria company. 

‘i wonder what she picked in the end’ said Em as we walked along the hallway and entered Nat’s room. She looked absolutely stunning. 

Her dress was black, with a corset-style bodice, laced up at the back and a tulle skirt, embroidered with flowers. It wasn’t long, ended neatly around her ankles, and she was wearing black doc martens with heels and white laces. It was quintessential black widow at her finest. 

“what do you think?!’ she joked, swishing her skirts. We assured her that she looked incredible, and sat her down. 

I used a dark red lipstick, and grey eyeshadow on her, swishing a layer of silver eyeliner across her lid, and sweeping mascara onto her. Em braided a fancy dutch waterfall plait across the back of her hair, and secrured it with a clasp decorated in finely filigreed moon and stars. 

‘ready?’ I asked. 

Nat took a deep breath and smiled at her reflection. ‘Ready’ 

She waited in her room for FRIDAY to announce that we were ready, whilst Em and I went to get chasnged. I was wearing a pale blue suit, and DM’s, with the gold from our anniversary braided into my hair, and she had twisted hers up into a knot, and wore a sage green dress with silver heels. 

I took her arm and we walked out onto the roof. 

It was beautiful. Val, tony, Bruce, Clint, Thor, Peter, Arya and a few others were sitting in the chairs chatting, Red, Yelena and Carol were standing under the arch, and as we took our seats all that remained to come were the brides. 

They entered from either side of the roof and met at the end of our DIY aisle. It had been their idea to give each other away – in that way they were giving themselves to each other, rather than it being like a trade-off of property. 

They stopped in front of Carol and they started to speak. As they talked, about true love, and commitment, and everlasting bonds, I looked at all the couples out here. Val, gazing proudly at Red, Yelena at Carol (even though they hadn’t admitted it yet, we all knew), Peter and Arya, and finally, Nat and Maria. there was so much love on that rooftop, at that moment, that nothing could have broken its spell. 

We waved them off for their honeymoon that night, they were going to Siena for three weeks and we were all so jealous. 

Over the following weeks we received many selfies of them at various museums and by the time they had returned, covered in tan, we all piled on them and begged them to tell us how it was. 

‘It was just amazing’ said Maria, and explained everything they had done, describing in detail a tiny Italian café they had gone to every day with the best cakes and coffee ever. 

Nat caught my eye and nodded me off to the gym. 

I met her there a few minutes later and she explained; 

‘i want you to teach me how to do make-up' she said. I have to admit I was surprised! I leant against a punch bag and enquired as to the reason. She explained that Maria had always did really nice make-up but had said in passing that it felt so nice to have someone else do it for you. My heart melted at the level of kindness and love in this woman. 

‘of course I will’ I said. 

And so commenced operation TNTDMUSSCDIFM. (teach Nat to do Make-up so she can do It for Maria. in retrospect the name probably needed work...) 

We met every day at 5am and locked ourselves in the gym cupboard, on the pretext of Nat teaching me secret martial arts moves and got to work. By the time a week had passed, she was getting good, she could name every piece of make-up that Maria used, and just about do it on me. 

‘You’re ready’ I said one day, and I scrutinized my carefully made-up face in the mirror. It was perfectly done. 

She sighed and smiled. ‘thanks for teaching me Shuri’ she said - ‘anything for you #4’ I laughed. ‘now go do it!’ 

I was scrambling a mountain of eggs for breakfast when everyone came down. Maria came over, perfectly made-up and hugged me and thanked me for helping Nat, and Nat herself winked at me over her coffee. Mission accomplished. 

Much against our better judgement, Carol had managed to persuade us into doing a press conference. Again. It was because some of the public had found out about the wedding and Carol wanted to use it as a publicity angle; ‘we’re just the same as you, we fall in love, we get married’ etc and we had all been roped in somehow. 

‘Now, I need to talk to you all.’ They said, sounding so serious we all thought that someone must have died. 

‘The men are all off on their mission, but they aren’t involved in this anyway so that doesn’t matter’ they started – this sounded promising.... 

‘This press conference will hopefully explain to the public that we aren’t so different from them; it’s a perfect opportunity and can showcase that all avengers can feel love. Now, if you all agree, and there’s no pressure, I think it would be great if we could all come out and show off the people we love, there’s no pressure on you, and obviously Em we need to factor in if you want your identity to stay secret any longer, but the rest of you, Nat and Maria, Red and Val - I know everyone already knows about you but being there would still help, and....ok. There’s one last thing I need to tell you. There’s a couple that none of you know about yet. We’ve been talking, and agreed. Yelena and I are also going to be publicly ‘together’, for want of a better term, too.’ 

They sighed in relief and glanced happily at Yelena, she was smiling. 

We all looked at each other, and Carol seemed confused. finally, I spoke up. 

‘Come on Carol – we've known about you two for ages – you aren’t the world’s greatest secret keepers...’ I said warily, aware that Yelena had the same training and trigger-happy mindset as Nat, but she just laughed and shrugged. Yelena walked over to Carol and kissed them. We all whooped. 

Later on, in mine and em’s room, now she was a confirmed avenger she had moved in properly full time – her dad had agreed (they weren’t that close) and she had a bed and cupboard next to mine. 

We were lying on our beds, eating our way through a packet of hobnobs, and talking about revealing her identity at the press conference. I propped myslef up on my elbows and said. 

‘well, why don’t we work out a pros and cons list, then we can weigh it up and decide. ?’ 

She nodded, a mouth full of hob nob and I bounced uop with a great creaking of springs (despite Tony’s billions, the beds were...suffice to say...cheap shit) and grabbed a notepad and pen from our overflowing desk. I tossed the empty packet, and it flew, pissing crumbs everywhere, and landed in the bin. opening a new packet, I started: 

Pros of revealing Em’s identity and our relationship: 

We aren’t ashamed of it, so we don’t need to hide it 

She has no missions or anything at the moment that she needs to stay unidentified for 

It would be good publicity, especially at Peter’s school for Stark’s 

She won’t just be my girlfriend in speeches or anything, she’ll have her own identity 

Cons of revealing Em’s identity and our relationship: 

She hasn’t finished training so hasn’t done anything famous or publicised yet so there is no real tension 

It might undermine Peter if she turns out to be an avenger at school and he just has an ‘internship’ especially with Eugene the crapweasel 

She is still quite new to this and doesn’t need the bother 

I sighed – there were points for either side; 

‘There’s logic for and against Em - I think you just need to go with what you want to do; do you want the public to know, or are you not ready yet?’ 

In the end, we decided on a kind of compromise, Em would come, out of gear as ‘MJ the intern’ and we would say we were together, it wasn’t a lie, and she was happy, in turn we would make some excuse as to why Blue Lynx couldn’t be there. We pitched it to Carol, gained approval and it was decided. 

A week later it was the day of the conference. We were awoken by FRIDAY screaming shrilly over the speakers in Val’s voice 

‘GET OFF YOUR FAT ARSES AND COME HELP ME! THE KITCHEN’S OVERFLOWING!!’ 

There were, as usual, various resounding crashes, screams, knife thwackings and gunshots, and ten seconds later we were all assembled, in the totally clean and fine kitchen, swearing in various languages at Val as she smiled sweetly. 

‘it was the only sure-fire way to get you all down here. And I wasn’t totally lying, there’s a pretty serious leak under the sink’ she defended herself. 

Carol raced under the sink and yanked the panel off. When they turned around, they did not look impressed. Wordlessly they held up a long green vegetable with an angry face drawn on it in sharpie. they sighed. 

‘right well, now we’re up, go and get dressed and I want you all down here ion 10 minutes’ Carol said. 

I high fived Val as I left, hands up in mock defeat 

‘good one swordy’ I admitted and raced off to get dressed. 

Carol had decided we were all going to wear matching tuxes, in various colours to make a rainbow flag – nifty I know (and a little tacky but we’d put up with it). Em and I were green and yellow. She took hers in the bathroom and I sighed, and pulled on the yellow trousers, but triumphantly saw that I had new DM’s too, the yellow ones I had really wanted, and laughed. five minutes later Em emerged in a lime-green tux and green converse and we went down into the kitchen. 

It was a rabble of variously coloured people; Red in red, obviously, Val in orange, Yelena in pale blue, Carol in navy, Nat in lilac and, wait, Maria should be here, clad in a violent shade of pink, maybe she just hadn’t got up yet. 

But Carol called out 

‘wait where’s Maria, she’s never late – has something happened – Nat?’ 

Various people replied and it transpired that nobody had seen her since last night. At last, looking paler than ever, Nat stuttered. 

‘I haven't seen her either - I mean I thought that...she had just come to bed after me then gone down to the gym or something before I woke up but.... 

‘okay this is not necessarily any cause for alarm’ carol said calmly. 

‘FRIDAY can you locate maria anywhere, just home in on her tracker’ they asked tensely. After a moment FRIDAY said something that shocked us. 

‘No’ 

It was pandemonium, Nat collapsed shrieking, Red and Val had to catch her, and my breath stuck in my throat. But before we had completely lost our minds, Carol, ever the sensible one, shouted harshly’ 

‘EVERYONE SHUT UP, there may be a perfectly reasonable explanation for this – FRIDAY please can you show us all the CCTV since Ms Romanoff-hill was last seen?’ They addressed the computer. 

Immediately a holographic display appeared, and CCTV was shown in fast forward. We all watched in various levels of embarrassment as our dancing and shower-karaoke of the previous night was exposed, but then we saw something that chilled us to our cores. The CCTV outside Nat and Maria’s room showed a man. he was dressed all in black and we saw a gun. gleaming evilly in the low light. He looked straight at the camera and took a shot. Before the glass cracked and the screen went fuzzy, we saw a face. A face we all knew. 

Nat fainted, and Carol said urgently 

‘FRIDAY show us the front door CCTV’ We watched as the man dragged the unconscious form of Maria out of the door. and paused to leave an envelope on the mat. 

Carol nodded at me, and Em and I shot downstairs to retrieve the letter. I took it straight to the lab and DNA and fingerprint matched it. It was him. 

I walked back in, holding the still sealed envelope and nodded grimly. I handed it to Carol and they read; 

You know who I am. I know who you are. I am not messing about with introductions. You know what I want. So, it follows naturally that I want Princess Shuri. 

I felt a wrench in my gut and Em grabbed my hand in fear. of course. She knew who he was from Peter but had never seen him. she didn’t know who was asking for me. I had been expecting it, or rather, I had guessed it may happen. Everyone looked at me, shocked and terrified but I nodded at Carol to continue. 

I have Maria Hill – or rather, Romanoff Hill as I know she is now known. You homosexuals make me sick. Another reason I am not afraid to kill her. If I do not have Princess Shuri within 48 hours. I will kill Maria Hill. There is a weak spot in your security that only I know of. I can keep doing this for as long as I need to acquire the princess. 

48 hours. 

Don’t be late. 

‘FRIDAY show us a full portfolio, known associates. and location.’ Carol said. 

The determination in their voice calmed me. The clear holographic screen appeared. A mugshot of the man was displayed at the top and underneath was his name. Em gasped. 

Adrian Toomes, AKA ‘the vulture’ 

Toomes was imprisoned when he was captured and saved by Peter Parker after attempting to rob an avenger's plane in transit. The charges against him follow 

Attempted murder of a fellow civillian (and avenger, Peter Parker) 

Theft of classified and protected substances 

Money laundering 

Hijacking a plane 

He is known as the vulture for his suit, which allows him to fly. Records show that the suit was damaged beyond repair, but his workshop was never found, and it is possible that he could have created a new one. He has not been discovered to have escaped prison, but I have just checked the CCTV and I can confirm he is not there; however, I cannot provide any data as to how he might have escaped. Since he attempted to kill Mr Parker it is likely that he may kill again so Ms Romanoff Hill is in danger, our best attempt is to send in a ‘decoy’ Shuri, perhaps Ms Romanoff Hill as she is the most capable fighter. I can get you information as to the whereabouts. 

Page Break

I turned back to the group as FRIDAY started scanning maps and finally spoke. 

‘no. Nobody is going in there except me. I can handle myself, Nat you taught me. You can all be outside and ready over comms but I'm going in there. Nat, you are the best fighter here but you’re too close to this case. We all love Maria but it’s too much for you. I'm not saying you’re weak. But you love her too much. Carol – do you trust me to do this?’ They nodded slowly and we started to plan. 

The kitchen table became covered in sheafs of paper, maps and plans. 

The building was protected by patrols from every conceivable angle. The press conference was cancelled. I spent the next 24 hours in the lab. And the gym. And the kitchen. Finally, I felt ready. I had collapsible and concealed weapons. After intensive training I could defeat even Nat and Carol without my guns and my hands tied behind my back. Nat shuddered. I could tell that the intense nature of the training reminded her of long hours in the red room. I knew every detail about the place we were going, and I knew the plan back to front. 

We piled into a minibus (stolen from the tourist group around the corner to make ourselves look less conspicuous) and set off. 

The atmosphere was palpable. nobody spoke. Nobody even breathed. All I heard was the rustling of armour, the clinking of weapons, and the dry sobs emanating from Nat. One look at her face tightened my resolve. When we arrived a mile away, we went over the plan and I gave everybody microvisualdisruptors so they could get past any cameras without being seen. 

I climbed out of the bus and ran. FRIDAY told me where to go and I wound up outside a building. I took a deep breath and walked in. I must have triggered some alarm because a voice came over an intercom 

‘well, hello miss Shuri. I see you have decided to save miss hill after all. by all means please come up. oh, and I have disabled any electrical signals in this building so if you have comms on. They won’t work.’ 

I had expected something like this, but it was still a dull blow to my heart. I didn’t let it show on my face as I knew he was watching me. Without looking in any direction but ahead. A tattoo beat through my head as I walked, like I could hear the rush of blood through my body, the beating of my heart like a battle drum, like the drums in Wakanda. Like the thuds on the punchbags at home. I felt as though my senses were heightened, making the most of my last few steps, the last moments of freedom and life in case it went wrong. in case life ended as soon as it started. I clutched the locket Em had given me, then I walked through the door. 

I was in a round room, it was dark and eerie, but there were many sketches on the walls, designs and ideas for horrific weapons. The floor was dirty. But the first thing I saw was maria. She was tied to a chair, and patches stuck to her arms and neck were showing her vitals on a big screen. another screen showed, I almost retched, her thoughts. Help me. I can’t think of any way to escape because he is watching me. She thought. 

Toomes was standing in front of her, just off to the side, but out of view of the screen. right. I had to keep his attention away while I freed Maria. I would need her help to take him down. I wandered around the room. looking as though I was merely interested but secretly planting discreet supplies at vantage points. I passed Maria, appearing to stand protectively in front of her, but telepathically controlling a small drone to go and destroy her bonds. I implored her not to think about it and to my relief, nothing showed up on the screen. I turned sound again, and he turned with me, his back to Maria and the screens as she silently uncuffed herself. 

‘What are you doing’ he snapped, a bite of impatience in his voice 

‘oh, you know, just having a look around’ I said nonchalantly. ‘you know, checking out my new home and lab – wow you really do need me here – at least three of those weapon designs would combust on firing and two of them combine substances that do not mix well. Believe me’ I said, raising my eyebrows. As I scanned the walls, I felt FRIDAY’s retinal observation software send images back to the team in the bus. 

I turned back. Maria nodded subtly behind him and slowly stood up 

‘enough talking now let's see what you’re made of’ he snarled and started towards me. 

Maria leapt on him behind and brought an arm crashing down on his head and a sharp toed shoe up between his legs. He cried out in pain and I started forwards. I stabbed an injection into him, a muscle-suppressor and whirled around, thin cords flying from my wrists (yes haha it worked) which bound him up. we threw him into a chair and continued to tie him up, I threw a baton and a taser to Maria and she kept watch. Seeing as I couldn’t communicate over comms, I took a pen and wrote on the wall, ‘come on up ladies’ and sent it through the retinal scanner. I had scarcely a minute to wait, I suspected they had followed me to the building’s boundaries anyway and I heard footsteps on the stairs. But the door creaked open behind me far too soon, and Maria screamed ‘look out Shuri!’ I whipped round and a gun was pointed at my face. I couldn’t set off any defences as it was too close to do anything. I took a deep breath, but the man on the end of the trigger was suddenly thrown backwards, blue light was engulfing him, throwing him around the room like he weighed nothing, crashing him into the walls till he fell down unconscious. I looked around and framed in the doorway, like some kind of heavenly gift, looking badass as hell, were six people. 

In the front, Em was standing, Red and Carol behind her, all in full kit, Red in her catsuit, Carol looking majestic as ever and Em in her beautiful armour, cloak swinging behind from the force of the door opening, gloves on and glaring, she was using her force to hold back the assistant who had threatened me, Yelena, Val and Nat were standing behind, respective swords, guns and knives out, ready, but after a second, the formation broke and Nat flew at Maria, Val and Yelena went to grab Toomes and Em left Red and Carol to it and came and hugged me. 

‘akakho umntu onokwenzakalisa uthando lwam’ she whispered fiercely in my ear and I smiled and held her tighter. No one can harm you my love. 

‘Ungayiba njani indudumo yam ndandilawula yona, sthandwa!’ I replied, laughing through tears; way to steal my thunder! I had it all under control my love! 

The kettle whistled, and Carol poured out steaming mugs of tea for everyone. 

It was a month after the kidnapping and all had been fairly quiet – Peter's patrols had revealed nothing more than a minor mugging and, with Nat and Maria's permission, Carol had reorganised the press conference. 

We were having a quiet night – Indian takeaway and the second miss congeniality – bitterly disappointing, before the conference the next day. FRIDAY paused the film, and we all heard a loud knock on the front door. 

We were rather perplexed as to who could be knocking on the door on a freezing early-February evening, but all traipsed down to greet them, nevertheless. We opened the door, and saw a girl; she didn’t look old, maybe fourteen or fifteen, but had a striking appearance. Clad in a leather jacket and black jeans, a blue vest top underneath, she wore the avengers staple clothing; doc martens – they were bright white, even though she had obviously walked through the rancid puddles outside, her hair was ice blue, her lipstick a reddish-orange shade and we saw a silver nose ring glinting in the low light, she looked up as the door opened and I saw that her eyes were striking; bright purple - I recognised Alexandria’s syndrome from my textbooks. Her skin was pale, and she looked vaguely familiar, but before I could place her in my mind, Carol had ushered her in. 

When she spoke, I heard a faint Russian accent lingering on her vowels; 

‘um, hello! I'm looking for Yelena Belova?’ she enquired tentatively. Mystified, Yelena stepped forwards and we retreated a little to give them some privacy – not too far though – we obviously wanted to hear everything. Guessing this, Yelena spoke in Russian – Nat and Red hastily translated for the rest of us. 

‘hello? You are Russian? You look a little familiar have we met before?’ Yelena enquired, confused. 

‘My name...is Henri Belova’ the girl said, and we all gasped – they glanced back and we attempted to appear like we weren’t eavesdropping 

‘i think...you are my sister...my parents died when I was six, but before they died, they told me I had an older sister, Yelena, you..i think,’ she continued 

‘they told me she had been kidnapped and turned into a weapon before I was born, that they had never found her. After they died, I was sent to an orphanage in New York but I was obsessed with this sister, it haunted me. A week after I was sent away, I decided. I was going to learn to fight - I was going to save my sister’ there were tears pricking the edge of Yelena’s blue eyes, but the girl continued 

‘I joined every martial arts club in the area. I studied Russian ballet and fencing; I went to the school gym every day. I fought all the boys, even the ones years older than me at school for practise. By the time I was ten I could beat even the biggest boys five years older than me, and I thought I was ready to try and find you.’ 

I knew that Nat and Yelena were thinking the same thing; this girl had put herself through almost all the training that the Red Room had inflicted on them, voluntarily, just to save someone she had never met. The girl was crying now too. 

‘i.. Searched, for years, I never stopped searching, for Yelena Belova, for what I discovered was called ‘the red room’ I spent years, but I never found it. I never found you. I thought I had failed you, maybe you were dead, or maybe you had never been alive. ‘ she swallowed and wiped her eyes. 

‘but then I saw your name in the paper – you had a home – a family – another sister’ she laughed sadly and took a deep breath. 

‘i thought...maybe...because you were so happy, you had made a fresh start and forgotten Russia, the red room, I thought you wouldn’t want to see me, or know me, but I wanted to give you the choice – you can turn me away and send me back to the orphanage – it's ok, I'll understand - I can leave there in two years anyway, but I wanted you to know I existed, that I care about you...and I wanted to meet you at last.’ She stopped and waited a moment for an answer 

But one didn’t come. She nodded, a little sadly, but like she had known what was coming. She turned to us, held her hand up in thanks, said to Yelena 

‘Thank you for listening to me. it was nice to meet you’ and started to walk out the door. She was reaching for the handle when Yelena shouted. 

‘STOP NO.....wait.’ the girl turned back, an expression of hope lighting up her pale face, she walked slowly back. Yelena wiped her eyes, took the girl’s hand and spoke 

‘you’re right. I did want to forget Russia, the Red Room, but I haven’t, and I won’t because that would mean forgetting my best friend I the world. Natasha Romanova. My sister’ she laughed weakly. 

‘you didn’t have to do that. To put yourself through that, God, I escaped from the red room. But I escaped to take it down, to make sure no girl had to go through that ever again, but you put yourself through that just to find me. ha that sounds like a Belova.’ 

The girl shook her head 

‘no, what they did to you there was terrible. They hurt you and forced you to fight. but I chose to. I wanted to. I was determined to save you and that made it all worth it. And I'd like to get to know you. Yelena Belova. If you would like that. ‘ 

Yelena laughed through the tears and replied. 

‘yes, I would’. They hugged and we all moved forward. Yelena introduced Nat and Henri smiled and shook hands with everyone. Finally, Carol invited her to join us for dinner and she accepted shyly. 

It was a strange night, we had somehow acquired a new family member, but she looked so natural, wedged in-between Nat and Yelena on the sofa, talking and laughing, like they had adopted her as a third sister in their little family. 

Soon everyone was asking questions. 

‘Are you really that strong – how much weight can you lift’ 

‘what’s henri short for - I didn’t know that was a Russian name’ 

‘Can I try and fight you one day – can you really beat older people?!’ 

She laughed, ducked her head and answered, 

‘well, um, yes I am quite strong - I can lift about 50 pounds roughly, um Henri isn’t a Russian name - I'm genderfluid so I just picked a gender-neutral name,’ when someone asked how they would tell which day was which she replied 

‘um I have two wristbands – red is a girl day and blue is a boy day’ she held up her wrist to show a red braided bracelet and we all nodded 

‘um and for your last question,’ she addressed Peter 

‘if that’s ok with whoever’s in charge – sure – yes I can usually beat boys, but I haven’t fought an Avenger before, so I don’t know.’ 

Carol found her a bed so she could spend the night – as it was getting late, and henri assured them the orphanage wouldn’t even notice – and she retired upstairs, in some of Val’s old pyjamas that had been loaned to her, looking tired but happy. 

As soon as she had gone, everyone started talking in low voices, but Nat shushed them all and addressed Lena 

‘She seems nice Lena, honestly, I'm so proud of you for that – do you think we might get to know her better – it might be nice to have a little sister’ she laughed 

Yelena took a deep breath and leaned back on the sofa, 

‘well yeah - I guess, I want to remember my past, in a positive way, and she is part of that – yeah she seems lovely and I do want to get to know her, um Carol, I know she literally just walked in the door but she is my sister and that orphanage sounds terrible – if she agrees do you think maybe she could stay with us for a while’ she asked tentatively – looking over at her SO, who took her hand and replied, 

‘well, if stark agrees, given that this is technically his building then I think that’s a good idea – we can’t have the family of one of our own suffering and he’s usually fine taking in the odd waifs and strays’ they laughed, gesturing at the rabble of people variously spread out in front of her. 

The three grinned at each other, then Nat said, 

‘Well, you lot, I guess we have a new member of the family – and she looks tough so don’t shit with her!’ 

Yelena playfully punched Nat in the arm, raised her eyebrows and said; 

‘She’s a Romanova – it's in our blood. ‘ 

Em and I woke up early the next day, the day of the press conference, but it was too early to get ready – so we put on some old clothes and went down to the gym. When we arrived, we found Peter, Nat, Yelena and Henri (wearing a blue wristband) lifting weights together and chatting. We went over and joined them. 

‘Hi people – you must have been up really early!’ I laughed, pulling some 10’s off the rack and joining them. Em took the 7’s and followed. 

‘oh, we didn’t really sleep at all – Nat and I stayed up talking ages after you went to sleep and in the end, we went to talk to Henri and he was still awake too – we thought this was the best place to get some privacy to talk and we’ve been here ever since – Petey only arrived back about an hour ago and then you came in’ Yelena said, grunting periodically in between lifting. 

We all moved to the punchbags soon enough, and through idle conversation we learnt more about Henri; he loved dogs – he had one back in Russia when he was little, but it was sold when his parents died, he went to the school near to Peter’s but had no friends – suffice to say it was a …. Conservative … mindset there and he wasn’t really allowed to fit in, and when we said he should fight Peter like he had said the previous night, we discovered that he was not lying about his skills - I doubted anyone but Nat could have beaten him that quickly (but I didn’t say – she might not be the most skilled fighter any longer thanks to a three-way tie with the Belovas, but she was still terrifying) 

At about seven, we decided it was sufficiently late to get up, and headed for the showers. We emerged ten minutes later clad in our rainbow suits, and henri in sweatpants and a t shirt, to find Carol manning the hob and poaching eggs. 

‘Right, everyone, plaster on the old conference smiles and just try and make it look legit’ said Carol, and following their orders, we plastered on our cheesiest grins and followed Red and Val out onto the panel set out for us. Carol made some statement about true love etc and questions started being fired at us, after a while, one hit Em and I; 

‘princess Shuri! As your relationship with Miss...’ he checked his notepad 

‘jones is the youngest of all the avengers couples, would you say that you are accepted within the avenger's closer community?’ 

I squeezed Em’s hand, leaned into the microphone and answered 

‘The avengers make a point of acceptance and inclusion, they do not discriminate based on your race, religion, gender or sexuality so it naturally follows that they do not discriminate based on age, I am the same age as Iris, and MJ is only a year or so younger, and we have earnt the respect of our peers so in answer to your question – no it really doesn’t make a difference’ 

An hour later, Carol spoke out through a sea of shouting voices and said 

‘Thank you everyone for taking time out of your day for us, we hope you will come again but I'm afraid we will have to leave it here for today’. 

The reporters started shuffling out and I muttered to Em as the hall was clearing ‘prying old halfwits – they're just nosy people who have an excuse to ask dumb questions!’ 

I suddenly got quite a few dirty looks, and Em reached forward to turn off our microphone, smiling at the prying halfwits as they left. she turned back to me and mock punched me 

‘you know for a tech genius you’re a bit of a numbskull’ she hissed, and we all fell about laughing. 

By a week later, Henri had settled into our routine, and felt like another part of the family. 

Wearing her red band that day, we were all watching her favourite film, about time, and had just dismissed Bruce and Thor for overly loud crying. AGAIN. Clint, Peter and Tony had joined us, having arrived back from their mission the morning after Henri had come, and we were all sharing pizzas and crying at the film (spoiler alert – the dad dies, and it will be guaranteed to make you cry). It was at that point that Carol stood up. 

‘Sorry everyone, but Tony and I did have an ulterior motive for the pizza - I'm afraid that we’re having another school trip here,’ there was a gigantic groan ‘and I have worse news – it will be all of them – Red's Peter’s and Henri's schools will all be coming and I want you all on your best behaviour,’ we all took a moment to reflect on previous school trips and the sound of val threatening a homophobic teacher with a sword and Red, a slimy little creep called Eugene reverberated between the intervening months. 

‘We have decided to set down some basic ground rules.’ carol stated wisely. 

‘All of you are helping out – Pete and Red I've had permission from your schools and Henri, you’ve been given dispensation to help too - I know you haven’t been here long, but I thought you would rather be with us rather than your classmates, just stick with Lena’ Henri nodded 

‘the trip will be tomorrow, it’s a last-minute booking and they’ll be taken around the usual route, we’ll all have to be tour guides at some point and we’ll meet in the gym for another display at 2 - I'll explain more in the morning but please try and make this one a success’ They sounded so desperate that we nodded sheepishly. Val went to press play again, but Carol interrupted once more, 

‘oops, I forgot to say – we will also, after much discussion, be releasing Peter’s identity at the exhibition matches, but Em’s will stay secret for now, so make sure to …. ramp up some tension.’ 

So that’s how we were all standing outside the front doors in light February sunlight the next morning, gazing dismally at the hordes fighting to be let in, with Cheshire cat grins on our faces, swearing repeatedly over comms with the most lurid insults for the rabble we could think of. There were twelve of us helping; Val, Red, Em, Yelena, Henri, Carol, Thor, Tony, Bruce, Clint, peter and me - maria was busy with SHIELD stuff - and half of us had been forced into being tour guides – val, em, carol, Red, Peter and I were ready to split off into pairs to each deal with a school, while the other boys and the Romanoffs were in demonstrations. 

‘here we go again’ Val sighed as the gates open, and the kids poured in like cows into a new field. 

‘Right St Georges over here please! Anyone from Saint George’s please come to Spiderman and me’ I shouted – Peter was in full spider suit ready for the grand reveal later and he seemed a little relieved when it was not his school that we were tasked with. 

A group in navy blazers split off from the general hordes and came charging over to us, forming a disorderly rabble and whispering about what they were looking forward to seeing 

‘I heard they’re going to reveal spiderman’s identity today - I hope he’s fiiit’ giggled a group of girls in the corner, 

‘oh you know the white widow here – they've let Stalin off for the day because she said she was white widow’s sister I mean come on of all obvious lies to tell’ sneered some stuck up looking rich bitch with bright pink lipstick and a skirt about an inch long, 

‘i just want to fight black widow – how embarrassing would it be for her to lose’ 

A group of boys who looked like their hair was defying gravity guffawed at that 

The last two comments stung a bit, but I knew they would get their comeuppance. 

‘Right, everyone, if you’ll just pass around these’ I interrupted, handing round lanyards with basic entrance key cards attached. 

‘these will get you in basic levels; the museum, training floors and various other parts of the tour but they will cease to work as soon as you leave so you will be unable to use it again, now if you will follow me, I will let you in and we will take you round the museum’. I walked briskly inside, paused for a second to add some colourful insults for the other tour guides to FRIDAY’s system, and continued into the museum. 

I was explaining the workings of Tony’s first ever suit to the enraptured crowd when we heard a shout of laughter from reception and Val yelling at FRIDAY, I sniggered and continued. 

‘Now if you come this way you can read some of the information boards for your favourite Avengers...’ 

All in all, it was a fairly successful morning for our group, the tour guides reconvened in the cafeteria for lunch and by the sound of it, Peter and I had got off easy compared to the antics of the other schools. We planned which douchebags to beat in the exhibition matches while we wolfed down our chilli con carne and set off with our groups to the training floor. 

They had obviously known we were coming, as the group were showing off their greatest skills; tony and thor were wrestling, clint shoot bullseyes so precisely that they split the arrow before, Carol shooting glow out of their fists, Nat shooting bullseyes, Yelena sparring with a punch bag and Henri lifting weights (Carol had decided to include him in the exhibition matches and he had been really happy). Carol came over and took everyone through the safety precautions etc, and detailed which avengers would be fighting – Nat, Yelena, Me, Val, Red, Em and Peter, and Henri, as a special guest ‘avenger’ to prove that you don’t have to be enhanced to be included (also I had a sneaking suspicion that Henri would be recruited soon enough). As they were explaining this, we filled the others in on who to pick to fight, and Nat was up first. 

She pointed to the douchebag who had said he could beat her earlier and he jogged up onto the mat. Approximately 13 seconds later (she took far longer than she needed so as to prolong his humiliation) the smile was wiped off his face and he returned to the crowd. Nat did not take pity on people. 

Yelena went next, then Val and Red, then Em. I picked one of the kids who had insulted Henri earlier (I assumed this that was who they meant by Stalin), and ground them to a pulp, hissing angry remarks about racism in their ear as I compressed their carotids. Then it was Henri’s turn. He was trembling slightly as he took the mat, and picked the biggest boy from his school – one who he obviously knew. I was slightly concerned that if he lost, he would never live it down. but I needn’t have worried; displaying a perfect example of the teachings of Krav Maga (scientific self-defence techniques developed by the Israeli army) he had the giant boy pinned down on the mat, limbs at various painful looking angles in no time. He hissed into the boy’s ear as he was pinned down, 

‘respect my existence or expect my resistance,’ 

Then gave his arm one more tug, at which the boy whimpered, and bounced back up, looking a lot happier than before. 

The last one left was Peter, and before he picked his opponent, Carol interjected. 

‘and now, something that has been long awaited – the identity of Spiderman will be released at the end of this match – good luck!’ 

They stepped back and Peter took the floor to whoops from the group of girls who had been chatting earlier and pointed squarely at Eugene. We had all been training him this morning, and it seemed likely that he would be able to crush his old bully before revealing his identity which we all agreed was coming to Eugene anyway. 

Peter lived up to our expectations beautifully. After knocking Eugene around humiliatingly, he leapt up onto the ceiling, then crashed down on the boy’s back and threw him to the floor. As he stood in triumph over Eugene’s groaning body, he whipped off his mask and there was a huge gasp. We all whooped and cheered, and a huge grin was plastered over his face. it looked like his problems were solved. 

The last event of the tour was obviously the Q&A session, and we all traipsed up to the specially tidied living room ready. Em had obviously found a convenient moment to get changed and she joined my side on the sofas that had been rearranged to form a long line for all the avengers. The schoolkids sat on the floor or the arms of chairs in front of us, faces turned towards us, and Carol started picking people to ask questions. 

there were a lot of questions for peter, then a few of the usual requests and once Val had turned back from a frog into a human, Carol picked the last kid with their hand up. The question was aimed at Henri. 

‘if you aren’t an avenger then why are you here? And what does that blue band on your wrist mean?’ asked some girl in the front row. Henri coughed then replied. 

‘Well, you are right - I am not an avenger, but I had recently discovered that my sister is White widow – Yelena Belova,’ Yelena waved, 

‘I was living in an orphanage until about a week ago, but the avengers have kind of fostered me, so now I am staying with them – and for your other question, I am genderfluid, so the band on my wrist tells other people which pronouns to use that day – blue for male and red for female’ he finished, holding up his wrist to show the blue string. 

Someone shouted out of the crowd; 

‘hey genderfluid’s not real – you're just a nobody who wants attention!’ 

Yelena and Nat started to stand up angrily and Nat produced a handgun, but Henri gestured them back down and addressed the crowd; 

‘I’m not saying that I can necessarily change your opinion on that, except for assuring you that it is real, and it’s who I am, but to address your second statement – it is, I promise, not for attention because I am a nobody – in fact it’s the other way around, I am a nobody, because nobody wanted to be associated with me, they all think I shouldn’t be allowed to fit in. Now I can’t change your minds on that and I will not force anybody to be my friend, but I do think that discriminating against someone based on simply their gender identity is a tad shallow’ he laughed, and added in an undertone 

‘лично я думаю, что ты просто смущен, я лучше тебя любого пола!’ and Red, Nat and Yelena burst out laughing 

(They filled me in later and it turned out he had said ‘personally I think you’re all just embarrassed that I am better than you in both genders’ which in retrospect was a pretty good line to come up with under pressure) 

There were a few confused faces, but then Carol made their ending statement. 

‘Here at Starks, we do not discriminate, and we look down on people who do so. if you are uncomfortable being in an environment of acceptance, I will invite you to leave, but if you remain, I must ask that you keep any derogatory opinions to yourself so as to not insult or invalidate anybody here. I hope you have had a good day, and on behalf of Stark’s I invite any friends of our school-bound members to return with them at any time. This concludes our day, and if you’d like to follow me, I will show you out.’ 

The crowd followed Carol out the door and as soon as we heard the elevator doors ding shut, we all sighed in relief and high-fived Henri – complimenting him on his handling of the situation. He grinned and turned red, then asked if he could use the kitchen for a bit. We were all confused but said yes, and half an hour later, when we were all lying on the sofas watching Brooklyn 99, Carol having returned from seeing them off totally knackered, he bought out a tray of muffins - ‘just to say thanks for having me the last week - I know it's not much but I hope you enjoy them’ he laughed, handed them around and flopped into the spare space next to Peter. There was a general consensus that the muffins were the best we’ve ever had, and Henri agreed to make them again sometime, blushing furiously, and we pressed play on the TV again. 

‘uuuuuugggggggghhhhh I think my life is over. all the goodness is gone from the world and life is a pit.’ groaned Peter. His outburst was not totally in keeping with the seasonal spirit (it was Valentine's day) but then again, his girlfriend had just dumped him for the worst possible alternative – to go out with Eugene. Ned had dropped him home, and we all gathered round to comfort him; 

‘she’s not worth your tears if she did that’ assured Maria, having quashed various Romanoff-Hill and Belova plots of murder and torture. 

‘no, she isn’t - it’s rubbish now but soon you’ll think of it as a good thing – now you’re free to date someone good!’ piped up Henri. We all nodded and unanimously decided to cancel our various romantic Valentine’s dinner plans in favour of Pizza and harry potter marathon with Petey. He smiled gratefully and Nat dialled. A few hours later we were stuffed with pepperoni and watching harry fight in the maze. 

Em leant in and whispered in my ear 

‘Let’s meet for a bit later – we don’t need a meal we can just have a nice time together...’ 

‘LOOK AT ME WHEN I KILL YOU HARRY POTTER’ 

‘sounds good’ I replied, and took her hand 

“I WANT TO SEE THE LIGHT LEAVE YOUR EYES’ 

We turned back to the film. 

It was the end of the fifth one by the time we all gave up and headed to bed, Peter seemed considerably happier, and we were all exhausted – mission accomplished. 

Em came up behind me as I was about to go into our room. 

‘wait there for a minute, I have a surprise for you!’ she laughed and slipped into the room. 

I heard her moving around and called out impatiently 

‘when can I come in?’ finally, she opened the door, grinning. 

I smiled and laughed, then hugged her - ‘this is amazing Em’ 

The room had been transformed; the beds and desks were piled back in a corner and there was a picnic blanket on the floor. A projector in the corner displayed the stars on the ceiling, lanterns all around and there was a basket with strawberries and lemonade on the rug. 

Em handed me a tattered piece of paper; it was a bucket list I had given her on our one-month anniversary – it had all the romantic-coupley-cliches that we were going to do – having a picnic under the stars was one of them. We shut the door and sat down on the rug. Em poured us champagne flutes of lemonade and we put the bowl of strawberries in between us. 

‘oh my god Em. You kept it!’ I laughed and leant over to look at her face, it was lit up with moonlight and she looked so beautiful. 

‘I love you so much’ I whispered, and she smiled. 

‘I love you so much too’ and kissed me. I put one hand on the back of her head, my fingers tangled in her hair and moved closer. But we suddenly broke apart; 

‘oh damnit’ she said looking down. 

‘i sat on the strawberries’ 

I threw my head back and laughed, then pulled her closer and kissed her again. We lay down next to eachother, our heads resting against eachother, and our hands intertwined. in that moment I had never felt so happy. 

We must have fallen asleep like that, because the next morning I woke up in the same position. Em was still sleeping, so I quietly cleared up the debris of the previous night and laid a blanket over her. it was too early to wake up, but I wouldn’t be able to sleep - I was still fizzing. I crept out and looked back just before I shut the door. I loved her so much. I closed the door quietly and crept along to the kitchen - I was going to attempt to make surprise waffles for everyone - still on a happiness high – but would probably destroy the kitchen. in preparation I grabbed the fire extinguisher from the hall before I entered the kitchen. 

But there was somebody already in there. 

Henri was sitting in a chair, hands wrapped around a mug of coffee and a red band tied to her wrist. She looked tired, but her hair wasn’t ruffled so I assumed she hadn’t got to bed last night. 

‘hi’ I said as I walked in. 

She whipped around and smiled, then her face fell to sadness. 

‘you ok?’ I asked 

‘yeah fine......well..not really but you don’t want to know – it's stupid’ 

‘Nothing's stupid if it makes someone as tough as you feel like this’ I hinted, and she laughed weakly 

‘ok then – tell me this isn’t stupid; I have a massive crush on Peter, and I've been up all-night stressing about whether to say anything - I mean what if this is too complicated for him with the whole gender thing and why would he like me back?! I know it's such a cliché and not like me and not feminist or anything but I can't stop thinking about it.’ she sighed, and her head thudded down onto the table, knocking the fruit bowl aside and exposing various sonic blast holes that I had inflicted upon the table months ago. I hastily moved the bowl back and replied 

‘well. first of all, don’t necessarily take any advice I give you as I am notoriously bad at romance, second of all – peter’s a good person. It’ll make no difference to him if he likes you, and why wouldn’t he! You're amazing!’ she smiled wanly. I took her hand across the table 

‘thirdly, it's fine to obsess over this – and who cares if it’s not a feminist thing to do – you can't help thinking about it! Just..try and put it out of your mind until you feel ready to ask him out or whatever – remember that you’re an amazing person and you don’t need to worry about it, and I know that’s really annoying advice but try to take it. And,’ I looked at her seriously 

‘I planned to make waffles for everyone but I'm notoriously shit at cooking and I know you’re good so please help me’ she laughed and nodded. 

‘thanks, Shuri’ 

‘no problem’ 

We stood up, and Henri poured her cold coffee down the sink. 

By the time the others traipsed downstairs, the table was set fairly neatly (I'm not the best at this cut me some slack) and there was chopped fruit and nuts and chocolate spread and all sorts set out. Henri and I carried over a massive steaming pile of crispy waffles and everyone cheered and sat down to eat them. 

We demolished all the waffles in under twenty minutes and sat back, stuffed to capacity. 

‘well, it does make a nice change not having to cook for once’ observed Carol 

We all decided to meet in the gym later and headed off to get dressed. 

I got there first and got some hand wraps and boxing gloves out of the cupboard and proceeded to wrap up my hands. I clicked play on my headphones and Mr Brightside blared out into my ears. I pulled on the gloves, took a stance in front of the punchbag and started taking blows. I didn’t look up as the others filed in and started their various workouts except for holding a hand up in greeting. I halted after an hour and went over to the water cooler for a drink. I was joined a minute later by Val and Red. We all sat in silence while we drained our cups then Val spoke 

‘so, we have some news...’ she smiled evilly and Red tried to shush her 

‘Peter, our esteemed spidery friend.....has a crush....on a certain genderfluid fighting prodigee..’ 

‘val’ hissed Red explosively 

‘we weren’t meant to tell!’ 

‘well, dear girlfriend, I have been doing some deduction and have come to a conclusion; the facts are, as follows: 

Number one: when we came down this morning to those delicious waffles, Shuri here had been cooking them with Henri. 

Number two: Henri looked exhausted, but caffeinated - I know the look of someone who hasn’t gone to bed, and just downed three espressos to get on with the day. 

And number three: henri looked extremely stressed, given that someone as tough as’ she glanced at Henri’s wrist to see her red band 

‘she is, can sort most problems with no stress, it leads me to conclude there is a romantic element, however, she seems like the kind of person who would just admit a crush, if she knew there was a possibility, they might like her back. Given that most of us are queer in some way and attracted to most genders I can only assume it is someone straight, and through process of elimination due to age, I deduce that Henri also has a crush on Peter. ‘ 

She sat back impressively, took a swig of her water and winked at us. 

‘well well well miss Valkyrie, I must say that is very good detective work, Holmes would be proud’ I praised. 

‘well...’ said Red’ 

‘now we have to figure out what to do’. 

‘I have an idea’ I smirked 

And so began the most daring plot of history. We knew that we would have to stay anonymous, as we all knew that Peter would not hesitate to carry out his previous threat vis a vis us meddling in his love life. 

After a few intense planning sessions over the next few days, the plot was complete. And if I must say so myself, it was a work of art. 

The plan began with two forged notes. Each appearing to come from each other in each other's handwriting (Val had some dubious talents), the notes asked Peter and Henri to go to the room off the side of the lab next to ours. This room was hardly ever used so it meant we had time to set it up with many strings of fairy lights and candles to make it as romantic as possible before they arrived. Peter got there first and we watched from a hidden spot as he walked confusedly into the room and shut the door. We had disabled the lights so he couldn’t see a thing yet. A minute later, Henri came in, and opened the door into the cupboard. When she was safely inside, Red hissed 

‘Go go go’ and I shot out and set to work melting and reconfiguring the handle to lock them inside, a few seconds later when I was done, we hit the switch and the lights flicked on inside, then the last stroke in our plan, we slid a giant sign under the door that said 

‘You both have a giant crush on each other - we’ll let you out in three hours – good luck!! :)' 

And ran away giggling. 

We could hardly wait for the next three hours, and Nat seemed very suspicious as to why we were giggling so much but dropped it eventually when she got bored. 

When the time came, we managed to get a lid on our excitement so they wouldn’t guess it had been us and opened the door remotely from the lab cupboard. YES! Success! They walked out, rather pink in the face holding hands! 

When FRIDAY had informed us they were safely upstairs, we clambered out of the cupboard, high-fived and ran upstairs to watch what would happen next. 

To our disappointment, they had only joined the rest of the family in watching the most recent episode of Holby City (damnit Kian just kick the drug habit it’s getting boring already) and didn’t display any symptoms of a new relationship – apart from their eyes flicking to each other a little more than was normal. 

Peter cornered us after dinner 

‘Right, goddamnit I promised myself if you ever interfered again you would pay but it worked out fine so I guess I must thank you for helping – HOWEVER this is one time that I am forgiving you and if this all goes sideways, I WILL BE BLAMING YOU THREE IS THAT CLEAR?’ he said quickly in a low voice 

We all nodded seriously, repressing laughter and probably looking mildly constipated for it, and he sighed and ran away. 

Once he had turned the corner, we all burst into laughter and high – fived. 

Once again, it was mission accomplished. 

‘So, what are going to do for Nat’s birthday’ Val whispered urgently. 

It was the march 2nd and we had only just realised that Nat’s birthday was tomorrow. Nobody really knew when her birthday was, other than that she was in her 30’s (we think) - the day we commemorated was the day that Clint had saved her and bought her back. We had a kind of rule that roughly every three years everyone would get a proper birthday party – rather than just pizza and their choice of film, so that we didn’t have to organise a shit ton of birthdays every year. It was Nat’s turn now and we had been so distracted with various things that we had totally forgotten. 

We made a hasty plan and Em and I were dispatched to cosco to get balloons and stuff, and Henri and Carol started to plan a cake. 

I grabbed my coat and FRI let us out into the freezing March air. Icy wind lashed at my face like swords as we tramped across the slushy ground to the shop. it was like walking into a furnace (in a good way) the doors opened and a blast of warm air heated us up - I swear, although Em says I’m just a hypochondriac, that I nearly caught pneumonia that day. 

I grabbed a giant basket and we ambled over to the party aisle. 

‘Carol says I've got to go away for like 2 months to do some training thing?’ asked Em, as I threw gold and blue balloons into the basket and deliberated over streamers. 

‘yeah, we all had to do it when we were first signed up – but it’s a laugh and Henri might get to go too so you won’t be alone’ I made a decision and lob the streamers into the basket that Em was now holding 

‘heads!’ I called, and she caught them. 

‘i’ll miss you ikeyike’ she said sadly. I stopped browsing and walked over to her, taking her hand. 

‘i’ll miss you too, but it isn’t forever and you have to do this – think how cool it’ll be to say you’re a qualified avenger! I know you’ve been fed up not being able to do things the last few months and you’ll be able to do them now’ I said, and she laughed and nodded. 

‘Right, let's get these decorations sorted then’ she said, and proceeded to throw what I can only assume is half of the entire shop into the basket. 

Nat was off at some conference with Tony and thor, due back late tonight, so we knew we were safe to unpack the decorations in the kitchen. 

‘wow. we certainly won’t run out any time soon’ observed Carol and they handed me a balloon air-pump. 

‘Shuri go inflate those balloons and hide them in your room – we won’t have time tomorrow morning if we have to set everything out, and Em stay here I need a word about your training’ 

I shuffled off to inflate the balloons, dragging Peter away from Henri, who was whipping batter, to come and help me. 

A few minutes later we sat amid a sea of balloons, inflating yet more. 

‘so, how’s it going with you and Henri’ I ask, off-handedly, glancing at his face, which turned red. 

‘Pretty well. Yeah fine.’ he gabbled out without looking up and continued to the next balloon, 

‘come on Pete I know when you’re lying to me and this is one of those times. Now are you going to tell me or will I have to ask Henri?’ this worked. 

‘no don’t! She doesn’t know anything’s wrong. I feel awful.’ he said sheepishly. He sighed. 

‘ok. don’t tell her this because it’ll freak her out. I just......I feel a bit weird about it – im not homophobic or anything at all – God knows I'm not...but I am straight, and I just feel a bit odd saying my boyfriend on some days and I know that’s lame but...’ he trailed off and ducked his head again. 

I put a finger under his chin and pulled it up so he could see my face. 

‘Petey. You aren’t a bad person – you're right it is a bit confusing, and it will seem weird to call Henri your boyfriend because you are straight, or at least you probably are – remember nothing is set in stone, even when you feel like it is – look at me! I'm pan, or at least I think I am but even I'm reconsidering that because I've never like any boys! You could be pan, or bi, or poly or any of that crap but that doesn’t matter – you don’t have to label yourself yet – or ever – just think. when you look at Henri do you feel happy, do you think about her and your chest feels weird’ I laughed - ‘gender aside, do you like her – because that’s what's important – their heart and their personality, if you like her you can get through this feeling weird, but if you don’t - you need to tell her.’ 

He smiled. 

‘I do. I do I really like her, and...you’re right. it's simple. thank Shuri’. He sighed. 

‘whoo! Glad that’s sorted now - I seem to be the relationship guru at the moment’ we laughed, then I raised an eyebrow 

‘now we really need to finish these soon or Carol’s going to throw a right shitfit – they’re so stressed about this party’ his eyes widened, and he nodded 

‘damn I forgot what we were actually doing’. 

When we arrived back downstairs, slightly out of breath, I raised my eyes at Peter, then jerked my head at Henry. Carol was the only one left in the kitchen, as the others had all been given various party-planning tasks, and I said to them, 

‘Hey, Carol, can you come and see if I’ve done enough balloons?’ 

We left, giving them some privacy. 

Once Carol had ascertained that yes, I had inflated enough balloons, they set off to the roof (the best place to get signal) to call tony and brief him on plans 

When I returned to the kitchen about an hour later, I hung back to watch; Peter and Henri were messing around baking Nat’s cake. Peter had flour cascaded down his front and was whipping what looked like frosting. Some splatted on his face, and Henri wiped it off with a tea towel. They laughed for a moment, then peter leant down a bit and kissed her, she seemed a little surprised at first, but I saw her smile a bit, and kiss him back. Then they broke apart, both faces red, and I decided to save them from awkward misery; I opened the door loudly and walked in. 

‘hi guys! Ummmm, henri I'm not a baking expert but is smoke meant to be coming out of the oven?’ 

‘oh SHIT’ yelled Henri and sprinted over to the oven but it turned out it had only been a bit of mixture burning on the edge of the tin and the sponges were fine. 

I helped them assemble the cake – Henri had gone all out – it was a rainbow cake – every sponge a different colour, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and pink, with a piñata filling. Once it was all assembled and crumb-coated - I learnt a lot of new skills that day – henri started piping, a task we had entrusted to her because we were terrible at that kind of stuff, and Peter and I sat on the work top eating the left-over cake parts. 

When Nat arrived later, we were all asleep, but it must have been late because she slept through – with confirmation from Red, who was always awake – and hadn’t left her room all night. Val and Red woke her up and took her and Maria out – on the pretext of helping Red choose a new gun, and we had the rest of the day to prepare. 

‘Shhh they’re coming’ hissed Carol, and we all ducked down and turned the lights off. 

The door opened and we all sprang up, surrounded in balloons and streamers, and yelled ‘SURPRISE’ 

Red jumped out from behind her, grinning, 

Nat screamed 

Her eyes closed, and her face was screwed up in pain 

Her gun arm suddenly lifted, and a crack rang out through the air. Red crumpled. 

Then another. 

I don’t think I realised what had happened for a while. 

The shock must have numbed the pain. 

It was like I was in a bubble – no noise or feeling or sight. 

But then it came rushing back. Nat’s screams rang in my ears, Val’s and Em’s mingling with them too. The pain was excruciating. I put my hand to my chest and felt wet. Blood. I swayed and fell backwards. Someone caught me and there was screaming. 

I must have blacked out a bit. all I saw were odd images, coming to me in bursts. A gleaming gun, dropped on the floor, fallen bullets scattering out of it. a shining pool of red. Em’s face, in shock, covered in tears. Nat, huddled in a ball, hands over her head, Yelena holding her wrists and trying to calm her down while she screamed. the screaming rang in my ears even when it must have stopped. 

Nat 

I had been on edge since we returned from the conference. I don’t know why. I just felt down. Scared almost. We had a good day – picking a new gun for Red to train with. We had lunch at that little Greek place on fourth. I was tired when we got back but I felt better. But suddenly they shouted. I didn’t even hear what they said but the noise and the lights flashing on triggered me. I was at the Red Room again. Madame was firing a pistol next to my face while I stayed calm. unflinching. but inside I was screaming. The shots must have been me. The screaming in my ears must have been me but I didn’t know it. Suddenly the picture changed, I was dancing. I must have been fourteen at the time. my toes hurt so much but by then I had learnt to deal with the pain. to harness it, make it into strength, determination. It changed again. I felt myself being held down, another girl’s face above mine. Lena’s, but then it changed and it wasn’t her, it wasn’t anyone. I was exhausted but I suddenly had a surge of strength and I threw them off me. I ran blindly away, tripping down the stairs I felt pain shoot through my ankle but I kept running. I threw myself into my room. Onto my bed and it was there that I came back to myself. After a minute, someone came in behind me, I didn’t know who they were, and they didn’t try to talk but they came and lay down next to me. They held me until I stopped shaking, I heard them whispering in my ear and realised it was Lena. Her voice calmed me. Suddenly I felt fire shoot through my ankle again and I yelped and clutched it. She looked down at it, I did too. I saw blood. a bone sticking out through my flesh and I fainted. 

Shuri. 

I woke up in the bright medBay. It was bright. Too bright. ‘FRI turn the lights down’ I groaned. Scared at the croakiness in my voice. speaking felt like fire so I stayed silent again. I tried to remember what had happened. I closed my eyes again. Blood. So much blood. and Red – what had happened to Red? 

I turned my head, wincing at the pain of movement, and saw two scarlet heads on the beds next to me. As I saw them, my vision came back into focus and I saw Em, asleep in the chair next to my bed. I was too tired to smile but somewhere in my broken chest I felt my heart warm at the sight of her. But my vision swam again, and I fell back into sleep. 

A few days later, I was propped up on my cushions, everyone gathered round my bed, Nat in a wheelchair. The morphine was making me a bit woozy, but I was fairly coherent. 

I had been told what had happened the day before. Nat had had a panic attack. A relapse. A flashback or whatever you wanted to call it. She had fired without looking and had hit Red and Me. Red had got off ok - a minor bullet wound to the arm and would be fine in a few days, healed in a few weeks, but I had been shot in the chest. The bullet had pierced my lung and grazed my left ventricle. I had nearly died. But I would be ok – on morphine for what seemed like ever and not allowed to leave the Med bay for at least a month, but I was alive. 

Nat had fallen down the stairs and broken her ankle. Her leg was encased in a thick white cast up to the knee. I groaned and lifted an arm that felt like lead to my chest, feeling a ton of bandages but Dr Cho pulled my arm back. 

‘you have to stay still’ 

I took a deep breath. And regretted it, it felt like being stabbed. 

‘Well, that was probably...ach...one of our worst parties up to date’ I groaned, and leant back against the pillows. Everyone laughed weakly. Except Nat. 

‘I’m so sorry. I hurt you’ she whispered. I leant over a little – ouch – and took her hand. 

‘Nat. It isn’t your fault. I don’t blame you and neither does Red. Please don’t blame yourself. IT WASN’T YOUR FAULT’ I said through gritted teeth – gritted because of the pain not grudging. 

It hurt more than a bullet wound to see Nat like that. Subdued. Scared. She had said she may never shoot a gun again, but I hoped for all our sakes that wasn’t true. I didn’t think it was – she was just ashamed. 

It had been touch and go during the surgery, Cho said, but I would, in time, regain all motor functions that I had had before. I would be able to fight again, but I should stay away from exercising too hard in cold weather and smoke for a long time, and I wouldn’t be able to do combat fighting until I was completely healed. but it was a small price to pay. 

I watched over FRI’s cameras as they waved Em and Henri away the next day. I wouldn’t see them for another two months and it made my eyes burn thinking about it. I was still disorientated from morphine but feeling a little better than before and able to concentrate more. They had wheeled in a TV from some storeroom, and I had amazing plans for the next few days (yes, I'm being sarcastic) consisting of a friends and Brooklyn 99 marathon and roping as many people as possible to join me. 

When I looked back a couple of months later, it hadn’t been too bad. Peter, also missing his girlfriend, had been spending most of his time with me, occasionally smuggling chocolate, and we managed to get through all our marathon plans, plus doctor who and harry potter in the time. 

I was up and about a bit now, confined to a wheelchair and not allowed to wheel in case I strained my chest, but I had had fun designing and directing interns into adding new features; my wheelchair was controlled by a panel of switches and buttons on the right-hand side, and some of my ‘special features’ included a sniper, focused by a toggle switch, an inbuilt pizza oven (I was bored okay) and relay controls for the TV. 

FRI took me down in the lift the first morning I was allowed to leave the medbay, and I rolled into the kitchen, wearing a party hat and blowing one of those roll out horn thingies that I can never remember the name of 

‘woohoo! I'm back!’ I said, laughing even though it hurt like hell and everyone else laughed and gave me a round of applause. I rolled up to the kitchen table and necked some breakfast before accompanying Peter down to the gym. We had decided to kill two birds with one stone – or basically multitask and learn Russian together while I taught him some new moves. I directed him as he fought an inanimate punchbag (gratifying, I know) and I read out words and phrases, piecing together sentences, from a Russian dictionary. we had decided to learn Russian for very different reasons; Peter, ever the kind romantic, wanted to be able to speak to his SO in their home language, and I wanted to be able to understand Red and Nat when they had their little Russian insult games 

That night it came back. Since the incident I had been having...nightmares. I lay in some parallel reality, halfway through sleep and consciousness, fighting the duvet on me, my hands scrabbling the sheets searching for a hand to hold, to steady me, but I found nothing. Detached images flew round my brain like autumn leaves swirling in the wind. The barrel of the gun. Nat with her hands over her head. Red, falling back. and Em. Her screams filled my head until they mingled with my own. I woke suddenly, the screams vanished. I was safe. 

I couldn’t go back to sleep, so I checked the clock. 2;14. Damnit. Tears slipped down my cheeks as I sat. Dishevelled and scared, my feet tangled in the sheet and my heart thumping, I felt it pulsing through the scar on my chest. 

But the door opened quietly, and I saw a swish of red hair, and violet shorts. Red and Val came in. they sat down next to me and held my hands as my breathing became more regular, whispering comforts in my ears. When I had calmed down, to my surprise, they supported me up and lifted me out the door. The aftermath of the dream still raged in my head, so I didn’t realise where we were going until we got there. They opened the kitchen door and I saw people sitting at the table; Nat and Yelena, Buckey, who I rarely saw given the strange hours he kept, and Clint, who had been staying for the past few days. I looked around in confusion – what was this? 

They sat me down and explained. They all had PTSD. They all had nightmares. They all liked hot chocolate. After bumping into each other many times in the middle of the night, they had formed a kind of nightmare club; secret from the others where they could go and ground themselves – play games or just sit and be. 

‘How bad?’ asked Nat, not looking up from staring into her mug, I could see her eyes were glazed, haunted by her past, Yelena was holding her hand, her eyes misty too and their heads were leant together. I supposed this was how they dealt with it in the Red room. 

‘We were actually fine for once’ said Val, laughing weakly 

‘We heard a scream and...well..Shuri was having a panic attack and what we think was an episode, so we thought we’d bring her here. It was bad. ‘ 

I wasn’t really registering what they were saying. I heard sympathetic tones and Clint got up from his seat and put his arm around me, leading me to the sofa and sitting down next to me. I leant my head on his shoulder, exhausted, and he took my hand. I think I must have fallen asleep at some point, but it was interrupted, fragmented by visions. 

I woke up the next morning to find a blanket over me, Clint asleep by my side, his hand still wrapped around mine. He must have stayed there all night to see me through it. I felt such a rush of love towards him. He had always been like a big brother, but now he seemed like a father, a parent. I realised that of course – he was a parent - I had never really thought about it. 

I eased myself up, fire shooting through my chest where the adrenalin had numbed the pain last night and hobbled over to the kettle. a minute later I pushed a steaming mug of coffee into Clint’s hands and he woke up. I sat back down, and he put an arm around me. 

‘better?’ 

‘yeah...thanks. For everything. I shouldn’t have made such a fuss I..’ but he cut me off 

‘don’t dare say that. We all have our struggles. Yours are no less than everyone else's. I did my job - as about 1/16 of your dad it is my duty to make sure you’re ok’ he laughed and squeezed my shoulders. I nodded and grinned and he stood up, stretching. 

‘right. I'm now going to hit the shower, and I really should get back home’. He smiled and kissed the top of my head 

‘stay safe kid’. 

When he had left, I stood up too and hobbled upstairs to get changed making a mental note not to forget the wheelchair next time because walking felt like hell. 

I knew what to do the next night when the nightmares came. I bit my tongue to hold in my screams, then swung my legs out of bed, eased into my wheelchair and wheeled down to the kitchen. Only Val and Buckey were there. They were playing a game of go fish and silently, I picked up some cards and joined in. I knew how to deal with it now. I knew how to acknowledge the pain, but leave it at the door, and by the time I had returned to bed, my dreams were clear. 

When everyone came down the week following the nightmares, it was to find Peter and I looking extremely tired but excited – the combination of hardly any sleep, caffeine and excitement combined made us, in Nat’s opinion, look like meerkats on heroine. But we didn’t care because finally. Today. Was. The. Day. 

Em and Henri would graduate and become official-proper-avengers and finally come home – woohoo! 

We hadn’t been told when they would get back so we had been up since three drinking espresso (and some other) shots, working out creative ways of trying to stay awake (some of these included slapping in the face, getting FRIDAY to yell at us every few seconds and playing Mario kart as we were so competitive there was no way we could fall asleep whilst playing). 

The other filed in, took one look at our stoned-looking faces, skirted around us and went to eat breakfast. We managed to stay upright, swaying like drunks (which we kind of were but don’t tell Carol), Peter holding himself up on my chair and tripped down to the front door, waiting for the spring air to wake us up or Tony to return with two fully qualified and highly dangerous teenagers. It turns out it was the latter that arrived first, and Tony’s car pulled into the compound, but there was nobody in the back and he looked harried. 

‘Mr Stark what’s hap-’ started Peter, but tony put a hand on his shoulder and nodded us inside. He didn’t speak until we had got back to the kitchen where the others were. He stood gravely in front of us, looking at all the confused faces and spoke. 

‘i have to tell you all something, and it’s bad news but I need you to stay calm. As it turns out, the Red room survived, or at least, the proprietors did.’ 

at this he paused and looked at Yelena and Nat, who were looking on edge and frightened, Carol and Maria looking anxiously at them, he continued 

‘They are still, it seems, going strong and last night, after their graduation, they took Michelle and Henri.’ 

I felt as though my heart had been ripped out. Peter almost feinted onto Bruce, who propped him on a chair, and my jaw trembled. Yelena shrieked and Nat crumpled in her chair, hands over her face. The others had turned pale but stayed silent 

‘Now you all know we aren’t going to let anything happen to them. Our team has more than enough skill to track them down and make them pay and we will. But it won’t be easy, or safe and some of you are too close to this to be able to work properly. I’m afraid that Peter, Shuri, Lena and Nat need to take a step back and let us handle this’. 

Rage boiled in me. I wasn’t going to let this happen. I forced myself up, using the kitchen table as a support and launched myself at tony, punching and kicking until Val held me back. I fought violently, but crumpled as pain took over, and she deposited me back in my chair, her hand closed over mine. I satisfied myself by staring daggers at him as he continued 

‘I understand your frustration I really do. I'm not going to lie it will be hard for you. but if you have ever trusted us before please please trust us now. We’re gonna do everything in our power to bring them home safe’. 

I looked round at the others. And sighed. I did trust them. They had all proved themselves to me so many times without even meaning to and I knew they would do everything they could, but I couldn’t stand by and do nothing. I just couldn’t. It all crashed over me and tears flowed freely down my face. Peter walked over wordlessly and wheeled me out of the room. He was crying silently too. He took us down to the training floor, to the gym where I had found him all those months ago and helped me out onto the floor. he sat down next to me and hugged me until we had stopped crying. I clung onto his arm and he held mine. 

‘Hey Shuri.’ he turned me to face him. His eyes were glazed with tears, but his face was hopeful’ Mr Stark is going to find them. The others will bring them home safe. They promised and I trust them, and I know you do.’ 

‘I know I know, and I do its just..I can’t sit by and do nothing and I know you can’t. I don’t know how we’ll do it – maybe Nat can spy on them or something but we need to be in on it. We need to help them.’ I whispered. 

He nodded slowly. 

‘you’re right. But right now, tears aren’t going to help them. we need to be strong so we can save them. We need to be tough.’ 

I laughed weakly and nodded determinedly. 

‘right. well, I mean I can’t defeat them if I'm stuck in a wheelchair so you’re going to have to help me. I know Dr Cho said I won’t get out of it for ages, but I need to try.’ 

He nodded and helped me out, but I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t walk more than a few heavily aided steps before fire shot through me. 

‘we’re going to have to rethink’ I sighed, flopping back down into the chair. Peter grinned. 

We spent hours scheming and planning and came up plans. I trained and trained, Nat teaching me to wield a sword and a gun from my chair because I couldn’t punch, Yelena teaching me to sneak up behind people, where to punch them to knock them out. But it wasn’t just me, we all worked hard. None of us slept for at least a week, none of us ate for days. We met in the room off the lab in the day, planning and inventing, we managed to rope Red’s friend Alex in on a lie and she helped me. 

At night we would meet in the gym and work away the exhaustion, punch away the pain until we were numb and exhausted. But it was worth it. We were trying. We had hope. 

‘Nothing’ came a quiet voice from the doorway. The dejected spy didn’t even bother to elaborate. She just sank to the floor, kneading her hands into her eyes to beat the sleep away. It had been a month. A month since they were taken. A month since we started. A month since we had hope. Nat slid across the floor to where we had been connecting wires and circuits, fusing the last bits of metal and finishing the project we had been working on. It was useless now though. 

It was a suit; went from foot to chest, melded to my armour. It had full movement; microscopic neuroactivity-detectors so it would work like a body; responding to the signals from my brain; it would move for me; punch for me, kick for me when I couldn’t. But at the rate we were going it wouldn’t have to. 

The others had been meeting every day. Working and planning, but they had got nowhere. They had found nothing. We knew this because Nat had been in the vents every meeting, or hidden in the walls, or in the gap between the sofa and the floor, cracking into the safe every day to read their notes. Just to find nothing. 

We all slumped at the news, Peter put his head on my shoulder, exhausted. 

‘Right. I’m calling it. We don’t give up, but we need to sleep – we have to sleep to work and who knows – maybe when our brains have rebooted, we can work better.’ I sighed. they all nodded and headed upstairs. 

I lay in my bed, sunk into a stupor. I couldn’t relax. I couldn’t sleep when I knew that Em was being tortured and hurt every moment. When she could be dead already. I couldn’t let her stay there a minute longer. But I was so exhausted that I sank into sleep. The nightmares didn’t come that night, I hadn’t slept in so long that nothing came. A few hours here and there in the last month, aided by espresso, alcohol, glucose tablets, energy drink anything. But no more. 

I slept for hours, it was late morning by the time I woke again, feeling less tired, but weak and useless. I forced myself up. Washed. Dressed. Then I went to Peter’s room. He was flat out on his bed; he hadn’t even changed from yesterday. I paused in the doorway, watching him sleep. He had been through so much. Well, we all had. But he was always happy. If he was having nightmares, or worse, he never let it show. He had always been our rock, relied on to cheer us up but maybe we had just burdened him with our worries as well as his own. Maybe he wasn’t as happy as he looked. 

I sat there lost in thought for ages, I heard light footsteps behind me, and I saw Nat and Lena tiptoeing up the corridor. I leant away from the doorframe, the ridges leaving aches in my shoulder, and followed them inside. 

Nat prodded him awake, and he sat up sharpish, looking hopefully at them. We all sat down on the bed opposite him – Henri's – and I looked questioningly at the other two. They shared half a glance then Nat spoke. 

‘we slept for a few hours, but then Lena came in and we were up all night talking – we realised. We know these people better than anyone, they made us like them we can get into their minds. So, we did. We trawled back through all our memories and realised something; they weren’t always there; there were days in the Red Room where we didn’t see anyone except the warden, we overheard them sometimes; talking about ‘the others’; we thought they must just mean others in the Red room but what if we were wrong? - what if there was another one. We heard them talk about ‘Рим’ - Rome – and we had no idea what they were talking about it, but it hit us last night – people call Moscow the third Rome - what if they had another Red room in Moscow, so we decided to have a look. There’s been a pattern – it's over too long for people to notice – it's been years – but they all fit the Red Room’s MO’ it’s all young girls, all fitting the same brief that we all did – and none of them have ever been found, there’s another Red Room in Moscow.’ 

We all sat there. Stunned. Then I spoke. 

‘right. We can’t research this using FRIDAY; the others will find out. We’re going to go to the library and use the computers there – they're so shit that you can erase the browsing history permanently.’ the others nodded, and we stood up. Then sat down again when we realised how suspicious it would look if we all went out together for no discernible purpose. So, we bugged FRIDAY to tell Carol various cover stories and snuck out the window (turns out the suit worked after all) and ran to the library. 

We stayed there for hours, reading every news article, piling together maps and dates and all sorts till we found a pattern, a centre. St Basil’s Cathedral. The Red Square. Moscow. We had our target. 

We took home all our maps and papers, hid them and returned to the gym. I could just about walk now, and do some exercise, but I needed the suit for help, Pete and I practised fighting Nat and Lena, they taught us what they were taught, showed us how they fought, how they had been trained to fight, how they had been trained to kill, and we fought until we could beat them (mostly) 

I was taking a break as Peter was fighting them both when Tony and Carol walked in, faces like iron. They stopped and Peter whipped round, panting 

‘Mr Stark, we were just...’ 

Peter’s eyes flicked to Tony’s hand. He was clutching the papers we had made, the maps, and the plans. My throat closed up. 

‘Mr Barton was making his way through the vents for reasons unbeknownst to anyone, when he found these papers. I know they are your handwriting. Please explain what they are, we need to help you’ he said simply. 

We explained everything. We told him what we had found, and what we had planned. When we were finished, he didn’t get angry. He had tears in his eyes. 

Carol said croakily; ‘you’ve worked so hard. We shouldn’t have kept you out, we should have let you help. You may have saved their lives. We’ll investigate this and when we find you’re right, we’ll go in. But we need you to stay here. You can’t do this last part’ 

We protested but they waited till we were quiet and smiled sadly. 

‘thank you for this. Sometimes you need to do what you know is right even if others disagree’ 

And they left. We collapsed onto the mats, breathing heavily. 

‘we’re still going to go right?’ asked Peter 

‘why wouldn’t we’ said Lena. Fire was blazing through her eyes. A fire I recognised. 

The next day we were standing out front, waiting for the others to leave, pretending to stay behind as they loaded weapons and kit onto the plane bound for Moscow. 

Peter was quieter than usual, the others all thought he was just worried, but I knew him better than that. He was determined. 

Once they had all left, we retreated back inside and started to prepare. We packed weapons and food and everything we would need. I held the locket Em had given me close to my heart. 

‘I'll find you sthandwa. I promise’ I whispered and lugged my bags out the door. We had surreptitiously booked seats on a commercial jet to Moscow, and once we had caused a minor holdup at the scanners when they found our guns, and we had to use our Avenger ID to bail ourselves out, we were free to roam around the airport for an hour, waiting for boarding. Having nothing else to do, we went to duty free – Peter went to the make-up section and when I questioned this, he replied that Henri was nearly out of her favourite shade of lipstick, and he wanted to replace it for her - but he had no more space so could he put it in my bag. My heart warmed a little, knowing that there were people as pure and kind as him in the world, and I went to get a Toblerone (I mean it’s airport law – you have to, right?). 

At 9:00 once we were seated on the plane I couldn’t sit still. I read the safety manual on the back of the seat eleven times, then took out my phone and earphones and downloaded a Russian phrasebook on audio to learn. 

Nat and Lena were sitting in the two seats behind Peter and me – conversing quietly in Russian. I turned up my audio. It was their business what they were talking about. I had the two seats to myself for most of the flight; whether through motion sickness or nerves, Peter had been making frequent trips to the bathroom, and returning rather greener than before. After a few hours I took pity on him and went to help him out. We emerged a while later, Peter having successfully emptied his stomach, and refused the lukewarm tuna sandwiches the stewardess offered us. Soon enough Peter fell asleep, and I must have dozed off too for before long we had touched down and I was jolted awake by crashes of luggage being pulled down. Lena’s tired face popped round the side of the seat and helped us up, elbowing the queue out the way. It was dark as we stepped out of the plane – of course it was 2:00 in the morning here – only 6 last night back in New York, and the sky was dotted with stars. 

The fresh air washed away the headache that the stuffy plane had given me, and we traipsed inside to collect our bags. After some quick googling, we discovered that our lodgings for the night, right on the edge of St Basil’s, was 40 km away, so we resignedly headed for the taxis parked out front. 

I zoned out as we drove, as we checked into the little hotel, as we lugged our suitcases up the stairs. 

I lay in my lumpy, cold bed an hour or so later, the two spies asleep in the beds beside me, and looked over at Peter. His eyes were open, moonlight falling across his face. it looked drawn, tense, worried. 

I slid my feet out of bed and tiptoed over to him, 

‘let’s go outside; we’ll get some fresh air and just wait for morning - I can’t sleep and I don’t think you can either’ 

He nodded and slipped out of bed. I tiptoed down the creaky stairway, trying not to make a sound, Peter crawling down the wall. 

We stepped out into the cold square, the cold breeze biting at our skin and sat down on a bench outside the rickety boarding house. 

We were sitting in silence, breathing in the cold evening air when I felt a hand clap onto my shoulder, I spun round but before I could fight it off, I felt a prick in the side of my neck and the world swam. 

When I came around everything was hazy, lights swam in front of my eyes, but I forced my brain to stay awake and my vision cleared slowly. I was bound to a chair, whip-marks stung on my cheeks and arms, my pulse was beating across the bullet wounds, as I drew breath my head span and it felt like fire in my chest, and Peter was nowhere to be seen. My heart filled with dread. A shadow suddenly loomed over me and a woman walked into my line of vision. She spoke in Russian to someone outside my line of view. 

‘kill the boy. We have no need of him. Boys are weak. I need the girls…ahh I see someone has finally roused themselves from their beauty sleep – that will not pass when you are initiated – we have no time for sleep’ 

She noticed me glaring at her and turned to address me. As she spoke, blood pulsed through me and the cuts on my face and arms stung. 

‘so…you are an avenger yes…I suppose you know two of my…ah…alumnae…’ she didn’t wait for an answer, and laughed coldly 

‘I’m here to make you stronger. But for that you need to be alone. Your friend is gone. He will be killed. Your other friends are gone. Most likely on the brink of death. Unless they are strong. But they are irrelevant; they were a message. A message to Natasha Romanova. To Yelena Belova. Nobody escapes their past. Nobody escapes me.’ 

“YOU’RE WRONG’ I shouted, fighting to stay conscious, but she just laughed 

‘I don’t think you are in much of a position to argue’ she said, and suddenly pounced, her hands grasping the edge of her chair, her face an inch from mine, her breath on my cheek. But I didn’t flinch 

‘ha – good control – you may go far…or you might have had you not come here tonight.’ I stopped listening to her, pulling the pin from the back of my shoe, I bent my hand round, and started to pick the thin, sharp handcuffs that bound me to the chair. She was turned the other way, pacing as she spoke when there was a minute click, and my wrist were free. I stood quietly, and as she turned around, she came face to face with me. I would go down fighting if I had to. 

I brought a hand crashing round, spinning and leaping in the air to kick her over, as Nat had taught me, but her reflexes were superhuman, she grabbed my foot as I came down and I crashed on the floor, my chest exploding with pain, but I threw myself up again. She blocked my attack and threw me to the floor, holding me down. She stood back up again, dusting her hands off, and tied me back to the chair. 

You are good fighter, I will give you that, but please know this as you hover between life and death. This is the end. And you are alone’. 

I was slipping away, the room swimming, but suddenly there was an enormous crash. I was jerked back to life and I heard a voice that warmed my heart. 

‘No. She is not alone. She will never be alone.’ My eyes focused. Natasha Romanoff was standing in the doorway. A gun was pointing straight at the woman’s forehead and fire was blazing in her eyes. A little behind her was Yelena, and I recognised the fire in her too. Carol, Red, Val, Maria, Tony, Bruce, Thor, Steve, Clint, Okoye…and t’challa… were standing behind them. they had called for help; My brother. My family. I wasn’t alone. Suddenly a shot rang out. The woman fell to the floor and I looked down the smoking barrel. At nat. Silence. The silence hummed. All my sense seemed on hold. But then it came crashing back. I felt more pain shoot through my chest, and I retched, blood came flowing out of my mouth and the wounds on my chest burst, tearing my skin. T’challa ran over to me and ripped the bonds off me. He lifted me up and as I rose my consciousness faded away, and I fell into blackness. 

I saw vague images, A flashing light, an oxygen mask, my brother’s tense face. Then nothing. 

I came round in a hospital bed, lights blinding me, vague faces huddled round my bed. Carol, and Nat, Yelena, T’challa and...Em... was I imagining it? But feeling was coming into my limbs and I felt someone holding my hand. I groaned and they looked up. 

‘What happened?’ I breathed, it hurt. 

Carol replied, 

‘don’t speak – you had to have surgery – your lung ruptured - you had compartment syndrome and they had to do a pneumonectomy – they had to remove your lung, but they said when you’ve recovered you should be able to lead a normal life, aside from some broken ribs your chest should be ok...but....’ they sighed sadly, a tear slipping down their cheek. this scared me. I had never seen Carol cry before, they had always been so strong. What was wrong. 

‘oh Shuri. part of your spine was disconnected when that woman fought you and your spinal cord was damaged beyond repair – they did everything they could, but it’s a miracle you’re alive and you’ve lost motor functions in your legs and...you won’t be able to walk again. The pain from your lungs must have numbed it so you didn’t feel it’ 

I swallowed. Fighting tears. But it was ok. I was alive. And so was Em. 

‘Where’s Henri?’ I whispered. 

‘She’s on another ward – broke her leg but she’s ok, she’ll heal, she’s safe, we were ok. We knew you’d find us.’ Em squeezed my hand and I looked up into her face. It was thinner than before, haunted and tired looking. But she was left unhurt. 

‘What happened to the others, the other girls?’ 

‘All safe. The other were arrested and Madame is dead. It’s all over’ She whispered, her eyes looking blank. 

I didn’t ask where Nat and Yelena were. They were with Henri. And Peter was too I supposed. I lay back and sleep came crashing over me again. 

The next few weeks were hazy, I recovered from my surgery and they started teaching me how to move into and out of the wheelchair, giving me physio. They had all come to say goodbye the day after I had woken up; they had to fly back to New York, but Carol stayed with me. 

They day I could fly back was a relief, I wanted out of the hospital – cold rooms and white walls. Carol helped me change into clothes and I pushed myself into my wheelchair. They wheeled me out and helped me onto the plane. I slept through the flight. I couldn’t face being awake for it. 

When we got back it was still morning what with the time difference. Carol helped me straight to the kitchen where the others were standing. I thought they’d be happy we were all back together but then I noticed something. Peter wasn’t there; come to think of it I hadn’t seen him at all since we were kidnapped outside that boarding house. 

‘Where’s Pete?’ I asked slowly. I looked over at Henri. She looked terrible; her eyes were hollow and red, ringed with darkness, she was thin, exhausted and looked like she had given up. The red band on her wasted wrist was frayed, nervous picking had torn the threads. 

‘We couldn’t find him.’ Said Tony dejectedly. He looked as bad as Henri – Peter had been like his special son. And he was gone. 

I crumbled. It couldn’t be true. Not Pete. Not Spidey. He wasn’t gone. He couldn’t be. 

I wheeled myself out and headed to my room. I took my little suitcase off my lap and started to unpack it. Suddenly the tears falling down my face fell faster. I held up an unopened lipstick. The one Peter had bought. I clutched it to my broken chest as I sobbed, barriers down. I called out to Red subconsciously and a dome appeared around me to mask my tears. I screamed, anguish tearing at my broken heart. My broken chest. Broken me. By the time Val and Red came in I was slumped over the arm of the chair, not crying anymore, but just sitting. being. 

They helped me up and onto my bed, lying down next to me, crying with me, the lipstick clutched in my hand. it was a while before I spoke. 

‘FRI. Can you ask Henri to come please’. I sat up with difficulty, Red and Val looking at me, a little confused. 

When she came in a minute later, I motioned her to sit down. I handed her the lipstick. 

‘before... it happened, at the airport, Peter bought this for you. He said it was your favourite shade, and you were running low, he said he wanted something to give you when we found you. He was thinking of you the whole time because that’s who he was, no. Who he is. He’s out there somewhere, I just know he is, and we will find him’. 

She nodded, smiling a little as her tears splashed onto the plastic casing. Val went and hugged her. I would have if I could. 

It was there that we made a vow. we would find him. 

I was cooking dinner the day after when I realised. 

‘SHITSHITSHITOMG I am the dumbest person in the world we all are omg SHIT SHIT SHIT REEEEEEEEEEEEDDDDD COOOMME HEEEERE NOOOOOOOW’ I screamed. 

Everyone came crashing through the doors – which promptly swung back in their faces and I suddenly had a flashback to another time that happened. So long ago. But I was too excited to be nostalgic 

‘Right, everyone SHUT UP. I know how to find Peter!’ I yelled. 

They were all stunned into silence. 

‘Red you can read his mind can’t you!’ I said urgently, and iris smacked herself in the face in realisation. 

‘ok I'll try’ she said quickly and sat down. She closed her eyes and opened her mind. 

She sat there for about ten minutes, while we all waited with bated breath. As suddenly as she had closed them, she opened her eyes, shot up from her chair and ran out of the kitchen. As we caught up with her, we found her hammering on Tony’s door. He eventually opened it looking harried and she spoke breathlessly. 

‘Mr stark! We found Peter – Shuri said look in his mind and I did - I can only talk to him – he can’t talk back so I looked through him and I saw the Bolshoi theatre – we saw it when we went to find Henri and Em – he's still in Moscow! 

Mr Stark shot up and called out instructions to Friday, we sprinted outside and soon enough we were all crammed onto Tony’s private plane, bound for Moscow. 

Red kept up an almost constant connection to Peter, saying we were coming to find him, reassuring him and telling him to hide somewhere near the theatre – we would find him – just stay safe. 

When we touched down, we made for the theatre. We stood outside, taking in the immense architecture and Red slipped into his mind again, trying to tell him to come. After a few minutes a figure came carefully down the steps, he looked thin and scared. Peter made a beeline straight for us and we gathered around him, covering him to walk back to the abandoned building we had landed on. 

Once we were sitting in the plane, gathered around Peter he started to speak. 

‘When they kidnapped us, they sedated Shuri - I thought they were just taking her, and I tried to run away to get help, but they grabbed me. We got separated as they took us in and they threw me in some basement and went upstairs but I knew they’d be back – the room was full of little girls and one of them spoke some English so she translated – they told me that the owners of that place would kill me, and they helped me escape. They made a diversion when the guys came back so I could sneak out, but they caught me. They took me to a room with a chair. They tied me to the chair and pointed a gun at me but they hesitated for a second so I flipped the chair over and knocked one of the guy’s feet out from under him, he slipped and the gun went off and hit the other one in the foot - I webbed them both to the floor and ran - I somehow got out of a window but I didn’t know where to go until I found an old apartment garage next to the theatre - I thought I should run but I was hoping you would find me so I stayed there – a couple of times I snuck out to steal food but I've been there for the last four weeks – until you found me. I felt so guilty for running away. I thought they might have killed you, or the girls who tried to help me – what happened are they safe?!’ 

‘It’s ok’ said a voice, Henri’s. He stepped out from behind Nat and sat next to Peter, taking his hand, a frayed blue band visible on his pale wrist. 

‘We’re all safe. That place is over. The girls are safe and so are we.’ He took the lipstick out of his hoodie pocket. 

‘Shuri gave this to me. When she got back. When I was dying from grief for you. That was when I knew.’ 

‘knew what’ croaked Peter 

‘that I was in love with you moy pauk’ 

As Henri and Peter stepped off the plane back at the tower, we watched them walk back into the building. hand in hand. We all smiled and cried – even Tony agreed that they must be the cutest couple in the tower, and we all headed back inside. 

I awoke to sobs and cries that night. Looking over at Em I saw her eyes closed, thrashing around in agony. I looked at the clock, 1:00. 

I eased into my chair and wheeled quickly over, taking her hand. She awoke with a start and tears flowed down her face. 

‘What was it sthandwa?’ I whispered. 

‘The Red room’ she whispered. Her eyes were haunted again, like they had been in the hospital, and when she spoke, I didn’t stop her. 

‘They handcuffed me to my bed and shot guns by my face. They nearly made me kill someone. But they said I was weak at the last minute and forced someone else to do it. She was nine. They made us fight. Tooth and nail. Do you know how hard it is to watch an eleven-year-old forced to kill her friend? Nobody deserves that. I’ll never forget what they did. And I was only there for a month. And I was twice the age of most of their students.’ 

She looked blankly ahead, her eyes streaming. I took her hand and led her out into the corridor. We went along to the kitchen and I opened the door. It was bathed in a warm glow and Red, Val, Nat, Lena and Henri were already there. 

‘if it’s ok can we come in?’ I asked from the doorway. They turned around and nodded. I sat Em down at the table and explained. Both Nat and Lena took her hands. 

‘Do you have one?’ they asked. I couldn’t fathom this question, but Em nodded. She drew the hair back from behind her ear and I saw a mark there, like a tattoo. Lena and Nat showed her theirs too. They all looked at Henri, who nodded and showed his. 

‘If you need us, we know how you feel’ said Nat. And Em nodded and smiled. She looked ten times lighter than the day before. I left her there to talk to the others, Val and Red leaving with me. It was their struggle. And I knew they would look after her. 

The morning after, everyone was sleepy eyed and tousle haired, just shovelling down Weetabix at an alarming rate – Tony really needed to buy some more, when the Romanoff-Hills walked in, arm in arm; there was something about their appearance that made us look up expectantly from our breakfasts. 

Nat grinned happily at Ria, then turned back to the rest of us 

‘Right okay, people please stop the Weetabix carnage for a sec.... ok so you know I'm not one for flowery announcements, so we have something to tell you’ 

‘we’re having a baby!’ laughed Ria 

Everyone screamed and laughed and ran over to hug them, once the general rabble had died down about Nat laughed and continued, 

‘You stepped on my moment Ria...that’s supposed to be my thing but anyway, basically we decided a while ago that we wanted a baby, so we decided to go for IVF and we had to try a couple of times, our last attempt was a few months ago – before all the.... stuff... happened, but this morning we managed to confirm it and Ria’s pregnant! We're having a baby!’ she held up a stick, with two pink lines on and cried with happy tears, hugging Maria. 

The next six months went without great event, Maria slowly got bigger, and they bought home ultrasound pictures and news that it was all going well, we cleared out a few rooms at the end of the corridor, for a nursery and some space for Nat and Maria; a bedroom and a little sitting room kind of thing where they could feed and change the baby in peace. We painted the walls of the nursery yellow – not knowing which gender the baby was or wanting to adhere to stereotypes, and put in a little crib, we all contributed something – Carol and Lena gave some toys, Red and Val a little hanging mobile, the boys clubbed together and used up some of their macho-ness to make a chest of drawers, Peter and Henri bought them some clothes and Em and I made a projector so mini Blackhill would be able to look at the stars and planets that their mums had saved. Christmas passed, new year, and soon enough, we were ready. 

‘Ria calm down violence is not the answer’ said Carol soothingly, staying at a safe distance as the crazed pregnant soldier held a gun to the temple of a terrified Tony Stark. 

‘NEVER steal my cheerios if you want to see the light of day again’ she hissed menacingly, removing the gun to everyone’s relief and placing it back in her holster, where it was discreetly stolen by Nat and replaced with a banana. Maria took the bowl of cheerios, and the spoon that had been hastily dropped by Tony waddled over, and flopped down on a chair at the table, resting the bowl of cereal on her bump. 

‘See baby, that’s what you do when a naughty boy tries to steal your cheerios – never forget they are YOUR cheerios and they have no right to steal them’ she whispered passive-aggressively at her bump and everyone burst out laughing. 

Tony sat down shakily with a coffee, which was immediately stolen by Nat and thrown down the sink. When he looked confusedly at her (too scared of Blackhill to challenge her and to be honest – who would blame him) 

‘Oh right – Ria can’t drink coffee and it’s too mean to have it in front of her seeing as it’s basically lifeblood for all of us, so we aren’t having coffee till mini-Blackhill is born – how have you not noticed that for the last six months - I suppose its brawn over brains with you Iron Man’ she joked, ignoring the hurt look on Starls face, and sipping her orange juice looking smug. 

‘I suspect you will be drinking more than enough to make up for it once they are born’ I giggled, and they laughed too. Nat placed her hand on the bump. 

‘oh, but it’s going to be so worth it’ she whispered, smiling at her wife. 

‘Oh my god!’ they shouted together, the cereal bowl falling with a crash to the floor 

‘what?’ said Em quickly, looking a little concerned 

‘just kicked super hard’ said Nat, laughing in joy she leant over and kissed Maria, holding her hand. 

Everyone shrieked in delight and hurried over to feel the baby. 

‘You know I think we should throw them a baby shower’ mused Em. It was a week after the gun-cereal-coffee-iron-man-insulting incident and the mums were off at a last check-up – the baby was due in a week. We were all sitting around, doing basically nothing. 

‘Yeah, I think that would be nice’ said Val, sitting up properly from where she and Red were lying on the sofa, reading books. Red surfaced, her face covered in tears and her eyes puffy, holding up a copy of One Day for explanation and nodded in agreement, we all set to work. 

By the time they returned from their appointment, the kitchen was decked out in yellow balloons and streamers, a yellow-frosted cake on the table, courtesy of Henri and a pile of presents – diapers and pacifiers mostly, given that we had almost everything known to man, woman or any other species already, neatly stacked in the corner. 

They came through the door, Ria with her head over her shoulder talking to Nat and we all leapt out 

‘ugh you know we’re only a week away and we still need a – oh my god awww you guys’ she laughed, as she turned around, seeing us. 

‘you didn’t need to do this!’ 

‘yeah of course we did what did you expect!’ laughed Lena, avoiding our eyes as we all repressed laughter 

‘aww you’re all so... ooowww ow owie ow’ she groaned, clutching her stomach and leaning against the doorframe 

‘wait are you..’ said Nat, panicky 

‘Yep’ said Maria, eyes closed breathing slowly. Nat’s face coloured and lit up. 

‘We have to go’ she laughed excitedly, and she threw Ria’s arm around her and helped her out the door. Tony ran ahead to call a cab and we all sprinted out past them. We all piled into four separate cabs and raced to the hospital. 

By the time we had rushed into reception they had already gone up and we all flopped down in the waiting room to wait. 

It turned out childbirth is not as speedy as you would hope. Seven hours later we were still in the waiting room having heard absolutely nothing. Em had gone to take Ria some ice chips and Peter and Henri were asleep, lying in one of the big scratchy armchairs, heads resting on each other. The big boys had gone home to get all the stuff ready for the new baby, so it was just the small boys (henri and Peter) and all the girls left; Red and Val were playing Go fish and Carol and Lena were reading the crappy magazines on the table. 

Em returned looking tired and flopped down in the chair next to mine, leaning her head against my shoulder and wrapping her arms around me. I extracted my arm from underneath me and hugged her back, looking up at the clock. 1;13 am. Ugh this was a tiring business - God knows what Ria must be feeling by now. 

‘I went past all the little babies on the paeds ward when I was coming back’ she said quietly. 

‘they were so cute’ 

‘let’s steal one then’ I whispered back, and she laughed 

‘good idea – slightly worried about the way your brain works though! No but come on – come see them’ she whispered back. 

I raised my eyebrows then nodded and she grabbed my hand, dragging me down the corridors. We stopped outside a glass fronted room filled with cots. Em was right – the tiny humans were adorable. I watched them burbling and wriggling round in their cots and in the moment, I really did just want to steal one. 

‘oh, they’re so cute’ I laughed 

‘I want one now’ Em giggled back 

‘Well, I mean we are going to have one at home soon’ I reasoned 

‘I know, I'm so excited’ she laughed, putting her hand around my shoulders and leaning against me. We stayed there for a while, looking at the adorable babies, until we realised that we must look really weird and borderline creepy, and returned to the waiting room. We had just joined in with Red and Val’s fourteenth game of Go fish when a tired looking nurse came in with a clipboard. We all looked up. 

‘um anyone with...’ he checked his clipboard 

‘Maria Romanoff-Hill, she’s ready for visitors now – down the corridor fifth door on the left’ he reeled off, then walked away through a door marked private. 

We all whooped in relief and ran, then after a disapproving glance from a doctor, walked very quickly down to the door. 

Carol knocked tentatively and we heard a tired voice saying ‘come in’ 

We all piled in, the wheels of my chair getting stuck in the rabble, so having to wait till everyone had got in, and saw Maria lying in bed, looking exhausted but exhilarated. Nat had her arm around her, looking at her with love all over her face (‘twas a little cheesy I admit but it was so sweet I didn’t notice). In her arms was a tiny little human, a tuft of black hair and a pudgy arm wafting out of the blanket. 

‘We would like you to meet,’ laughed Ria, as the baby reached up and grabbed her nose ‘Alyona Carol Romanoff Hill, it means light in her mum’s language’ She looked up at Nat, smiling. 

‘Actually, it means bright and shining light’ laughed Nat. 

‘and it’s a diminutive of.....Yelena’ she looked at her sister, her eyes sparkling, and grinned 

‘surprise’ 

Carol and Yelena both turned red and smiled, tears streaming down their cheeks. 

‘bit of a mouthful’ I joked, everyone laughing too. Alyona was passed around, gurgling happily. I zoned out for a while, whether from exhaustion or just general happiness I don’t know, but I was brought back to reality when Val gently passed her into my arms. 

I looked down at the little baby, her hair was dark and tufty, but smooth like silk. Her little pink face smiled gummily up at me and I grinned stupidly down at her. Suddenly she grabbed my finger; I don’t know how to explain it if a baby has never grabbed your finger with their whole hand and hung on, but it was the best feeling ever, I felt my eyes grow hot and tears leaked down my face as I laughed shakily, looking down at the newest addition to our family, hanging on determinedly to my finger. 

‘Strong grip, she’ll be a great fighter’ I choked out. 

‘That’s my girl’ sobbed Nat. 

The happiness in that room, at that moment, could have filled an entire galaxy with some left to spare. As I looked down at the tiny life in my arms, I felt real hope, I don’t really know what for, or why, but she had her whole life ahead of her, and that really was hope. 

‘right. If that baby wakes me up one more time, I WILL NOT BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR MY ACTIONS’ shouted a raging, ruffled Tony Stark. 

Baby Alyona, we called her Aly now, was two weeks old, she had been living in the tower for a week and a half and suffice to say her late night antics were making some residents rather.... tetchy 

‘At least you don’t have to get up every time she cries’ said Maria, not lifting her head from where it was rested on the table, eyes closed. Em had volunteered to take her for a walk in the fresh air – being January it was pretty breezy in the morning, and she said the fresh air might tire her out – fingers crossed. 

‘Go to bed Romanoff Hills and I'll bring you coffee and breakfast, you’ve earned a break and Stark,’ I said angrily, wheeling over, grabbing his shirt collar and dragging him down until we were face-to-face 

‘Shut up about the baby – you're an entire floor away from her – some of us are much closer, much more sleep deprived and frankly much more willing to stab first, ask questions later’ I finished, wheeling over to the kettle, and gesturing the tired spies upstairs. A few minutes later I had a tray on my lap, moving carefully toward the lift with steaming mugs of caffeine and a few slices of toast. FRIDAY took me up, but when I entered the room, they were crashed out fast asleep. I left the tray and attempted to quietly leave the room, accidentally crashing in the door frame. They sat up sleepily, then laughed as I winced apologetically. They gave me a thumbs up and groaned thanks at me, flopping back down to sleep. 

When Em got back, I went to meet her. She waved, then held a finger to her lips and pointed at the sleeping baby. I gave her a thumbs up and went to join them. we didn’t want to risk waking the tiny human, so we sat on the steps, chatting. A few minutes later, a wail arose from the tiny human, so I picked her up and took her inside, asking FRI to decode the cry, then, on her answer, proceeding to the bathroom to change her. By the time Nat and Maria had come down, looking less tired and happy, Thor was playing peekaboo with aly as she sat on Lena’s lap, sending her into paroxysms of delight, and everyone was cooing over her. They grinned and sat down with us. 

Aly didn’t cry that night, strangely, or the next night, or the next. She didn’t cry at all for at least a week. I was, it seemed, the only one who was a little suspicious, so I decided to stage a stakeout. That night, when they put Aly down in her room, I hid in the corner, blending into the darkness and watched. From my vantage point I saw a baby monitor taped to the bottom of her crib – slightly odd as Nat and Ria didn’t use one – their room was right next door. Curiouser and curiouser... I thought. 

Soon, Aly started to stir, a little moan escaping from her, her face screwed up ready to cry, and I braced myself. But there was a muffled thud, and a figure came out of the vent, scampering across the ceiling. Immediately Aly seemed to recognise him, giggling and babbling happily. Peter lifted her up, shushing her and taking a bottle out from his pocket. I watched, my heart melting as he fed her, burped her, then whispered. 

‘hey, keep it down – your mums need their sleep – should we do the song, oh yes, the song, let's do the song’ he laughed quietly, then shifted his grip and held her up by the armpits. He bounced her around, singing, 

‘baby spy doo doo doo doo doo doo 

Baby spy doo doo doo doo doo doo 

Baby spy doo doo doo doo doo doo 

Baby spy...’ 

He stayed there, bouncing her around, then holding her against him until she fell asleep. He laid her gently back into her cot and silently disappeared back into the ceiling. 

The next evening, I took everyone aside while Peter was in the shower, and told them the plan, not explaining everything... 

We all managed to crush ourselves into hiding places, or looking through a crack in the door and waited. Soon enough, the baby stirred and the thud came, Peter dropping through the ceiling. He lifted her out of the cot and everyone burst out from their hiding places, flicking the light on. He looked up wildly, his expression like a rabbit in the headlights and saw us all sranding round him 

‘what are you all, what?’ he said, his face twisting into a confused expression 

‘have you been the thing keeping her quiet?’ asked Nat 

‘Well I mean ummm I guess - I just thought – sorry' he muttered, ducking his head like he had done something wrong, and placing Aly back into her cot, but Maria walked over and hugged him. His face, or at least the portion of forehead visible above her shoulder turned beetroot red, and she said, 

‘That was so sweet petey, thanks.’ 

she laughed into his hair, then let him go and everyone headed back to bed. 

‘So we were talking last night,’ said maria, addressing Peter at breakfast the next morning, ‘and what you did was so sweet we thought you might ask you.. If you wanted to be Aly’s godfather - I mean you aren’t technically of age yet, so if we died you wouldn’t be able to look after her - I mean everyone would probably end up looking after her so it’s more of a kind of... well I suppose teaching thing – you play with her, and be cool uncle Peter and stuff’ she laughed. ‘if you want to’ 

‘umm well thanks! That's amazing - I mean are you sure you want... thanks guys!’ he stuttered, his face lighting up. They laughed at him then raised their eyebrows and nodded in unison. 

So that’s how, three days later, Peter was standing in front of Thor, holding Aly, as a traditional asgardian christening took place. 

‘in the name of Odin, I baptise thee, Alyona Carol Romanoff Hill’ said Thor, turning to Peter 

‘Peter Parker, as Alyona’s Godfather do you vow to teach her she is a force to be reckoned with, to lift her up when she falls down, to remind her she has a purpose in life, and to help her find it, to show her how to live in the light, and to teach her how to beat the darkness, to make her feel like a princess, and a warrior, and whatever she wants to be?’ 

‘yup’ said Peter, grinning down at the little baby. Thor’s looked a little disgruntled. 

‘Come on spidey I spent ages on that speech, and I adapted it from the original, mildly sexist Asguardian christening speech thast would have ruffled some feathers here...’ at this he stared accusatorily at...well actually all of us, one eyebrow raised. 

‘i at least deserve an I do..’ he said expectantly 

‘right yep sorry, I do promise’ said peter emphatically and everyone roared with laughter. 

I heard a gunshot that night. I felt the bullet rip through me. I felt the bonds holding me to the chair. Saw the face right next to mine. Felt the hot breath on my cheek. I woke with a start. Em was already gone, her sheets in a tangle, I guessed she had had the nightmares too. I fell into my chair and made my way along the corridor, opened the door to the kitchen. Maria was sitting at the table, feeding Aly, whilst Em and Henri sat with their hands grasping mugs of tea, their eyes glazed and pained. I moved into the table and MAria looked up 

‘bad one?’ she asked quietly 

‘not too bad – you?’ I replied shakily 

‘oh I'm ok - I came down here to feed Aly because Nat wasn’t sleeping well and Aly was fussing - I found these two already here - I think they had it bad’. She shifted Aly in her arms and passed her over to Henri who looked awful, her skin paler than paper, like she was carrying the world on her shoulders. We had discovered that holding Aly helped when we were having flashbacks, she grounded us, made us kind of happy and now it was just practice to go and see her when we were feeling down. Henri started a little as the baby was passed into her arms, and looked up, smiling a little. She looked into Aly’s little face and tears began streaming down hers. Unprompted, she spoke quietly. 

‘I didn’t tell Lena what happened to me there. I don’t think MJ even knows. I didn’t want to burden them. They separated us when we arrived, took me to a room with...a chair. It was like a dentist chair, but with chains. The room was bright. So bright. I didn’t sleep while I was there. All month. I guess I fell unconscious sometimes but... I don’t know. It’s all a bit hazy. They did experiments on me, gave me injections. I felt the rage boiling through me, I lost all sense of who I was, what I was. They said I was called...Black wolf...i think it’s a kind of spider...they said what they had done to me made me superior to the widows, or if they had finished it would have done. They said they called me that because wolf spiders hunt alone, and they’re lethal. Soon I didn’t feel the pain anymore. They would torture me until I was numb to it, they gave me so many injections - I still don’t know what they were. They said....it would stop me being able to have children, or to feel pain. or to...be human anymore. and....now when I get angry, or when I get flashbacks I.......feel this power – it scares me; I wake up hovering above my bed, all my things just....floating. And I glow, kind of.....violet colour I guess, my hair changes colour and when I'm in that … trance I suppose it is , whatever I touch burns and disappears. I guess they were turning me into a weapon...i..don’t know. I thought about....stopping it – ending it. Making sure I wasn’t a danger to anyone. But...i just couldn’t.’ 

she stopped, sobbing, tears splashing down her cheeks. Em stood up, walked round the table and took the baby away while Maria hugged her. She clung on, crying herself silent. When she seemed too weak to stay awake Maria lifted her up and Em went with her to take her back to her room. I sat the baby on my lap and waited for them to return. Dwelling on the emptiness, in Henri’s face. Her hollow eyes. I fell asleep there, Aly on my lap, and woke with the dawn rising outside the window. I jerked up with a start, my back a little sore from sleeping in my chair and decided to take Aly back to Nat, I found her in the training room, punching a punchbag. She thanked me, took off her gloves and lifted the baby from my arms, cooing and smiling at her little face. She asked causally where Maria was and I hesitated, but told her. As I talked Nat’s face grew haunted, like the days I had seen it before, she hadn’t had that look on her face since Aly, and I realised how awful it must be. 

‘Lena....needs to know’ she said quietly and I nodded. She handed the baby back to me and I took her back upstairs. Once I got back into the kitchen the others coverged on me, Carol seized her from my lap, Smiling and talking in a baby voice, levitating off the ground while Aly smiled her gummy smile in delight and waved her tubby arms. A few minutes later Nat, Maria and Lena entered, Henri standing beside them, his blue band on his wrist. he looked tired but determined. he started to explain, his voice was quiet but nobody missed a word. he explained all that had happened, all they had done to him and when he had finished, Peter stood up silently, he walked over and hugged him. Henri wilted, leaning against Peter for support, wracked with sobs. Tears fell freely down Peter’s face too but he cried silently. 

While Henri stood there, we saw past the tough, funny exterior and into the person inside. Broken, scared, lonely...strong. And I think in that moment we all decided to do something about it. 

Everyone stood there, saying nothing for a while and watching Peter comfort him, but Em broke the silence; 

‘You said...you’ve never been who you actually are, and they made it even harder...but...who is that, who is the person you really are because we can help, we can help you become you.....if you want’ she smiled weakly and Henri laughed a little through the tears and hugged her. 

We all sat back down and Henri spoke 

‘well I guess I was always just...restricted; the kids home I was in...they always called me a girl even when I wasn’t, and I had to keep my hair long...i had to study all the defence and fighting secretly, the only thing they knew about was the ballet because they thought the other stuff was too....i guess boyish.. When I asked. I just...i was never accepted for who I was and then all of you made me really feel like it was ok, but then when they...turned me...i was scared you would send me away because I was dangerous or something’ he tailed off. 

Carol stepped forward from their position behind the group. They took Henri’s hand, tipped up his chin to look her in the eyes and spoke determinedly 

‘we can change that; we don’t exile people for who they are here. We teach them to turn their weaknesses into their strength. We train what they did to you and one day you’ll even be grateful because what tests you only makes you stronger and you have been tested beyond belief. You don’t worry about being accepted here. We love you and we think you’re awesome’ they laughed a bit at this and continued. 

‘and here you can train in any way you like, any way you enjoy. You can look how you want, and you can be who you want, and if there’s anything stopping that we can and will help...ok?’ 

Henri nodded, looking more hopeful than I had seen in a while. Em stood up again, leaned in front of him and squinted, scrutinizing his face. 

‘you know if the long hair is a problem, I reckon I can sort that out..’ 

She said, raising her eyebrows questioningly and he nodded 

‘i mean if that’s ok that would be...great’ he said, looking at her nervously. 

She nodded and went off to find the things she needed. 

About an hour of snipping and combing later she held up the mirror, I saw shock and wonder flood his face, it was like he was discovering a whole new face that belonged to him, that he had never seen before. A smile slowly spread across his face like sunshine, lighting up his features, his violet eyes lighting up, looking so grateful. Such a simple thing as a haircut had made him so happy, so much lighter. Em had trimmed away all the long hair and cut it into a kind of pixie cut, shaved quite short down the left side of his face with a waterfall of curly hair spilling down the other side, re-dyeing it violet to match his eyes and his powers. It looked great – he hadn’t asked for anything, she had just set off silently, like she had known what would be great. She laughed at the look on his face - 

‘like it?’ 

‘it’s amazing...thank you.. I look like a different person’ he laughed. He stood up, took the towel off his shoulder and hugged her. Everyone cheered and Em took an exaggerated bow, then set to work clearing all the stuff away, sweeping up the hair off the floor. Suddenly he started glowing violet, he rose into the air and screwed up his face until it went away. I saw his face fall, 

He couldn't feel strong emotion without it taking hold of him - he had to quash everything he felt. It was no way to live a life. 

I stuck my tongue between my teeth as I screwed up my eyes, staring down a microscope as I connected miniscule pieces of wire and metal together, I shifted my position, tightened the straps on the papoose carrying Aly - I was ‘babysitting’ which basically consisted of doing my normal stuff while having a baby tied to me – and sat up satisfied, blinking my strained eyes and holding up the tiny bit of tech. It detected the signals from the neural inhibitors in Henri’s brain which basically took the chemical imbalance in his brain when he felt a strong emotion and used it to turn him. I guessed if they had been able to keep him there longer, they would have slowly erased all feeling and emotion, making him a permanent weapon. I sat there for a while, lost in my thoughts, feeling such pity for Henri. I came back to myself when Peter crashed through the door of the lab. I flinched at the noise disrupting my nice quiet haven and Aly jerked awake and started crying. He ran over and picked her up, shushing her, then asked what I was doing 

‘oh, I'm making something for Henri – it just goes in the side of his arm and it blocks the stuff that changes his mind – he should be able to keep the flying and glowing, and if we teach him, he should be able to do it by will rather than emotion.....’ I paused, finishing off the last bit then held it up 

‘basically, the stuff they put in his head harnesses his emotions, then wipes his mind and turns him when he feels something strongly, so this will just stop the mind wipe – he'll be able to stay cohesive and..well not-evil I suppose, and stay himself while he uses his powers, also he’ll be able to control the burning touch thing – he'll only use it when he wants to’ 

‘wow that’s...cool - he’ll be so grateful’ grinned Peter, carefully placing a now sleeping Aly back in the papoose. 

‘well, I mean it’s done – we can go give it to him now if he’s free’ 

‘um yeah - I think he’s in the gym’ 

I nodded, gave a thumbs up and wheeled carefully out of the door, making sure not to wake Aly. 

We found Henri getting a boxing lesson from Lena and went over. He waved at us and unwrapped his hands to go and get some water. We went with him and I held out the little piece of tech, he took it, turning it over and I explained. He grinned as I explained what it would do – now he would really belong – he even had powers, but didn’t have to hold them back, he could use them for good. He went back with us to the lab, and I gave him a local anaesthetic and carefully planted it under the skin on his upper arm. 

‘go on – try' I said, gesturing him up. He stood up nervously, screwed up his eyes, and the violet glow came from him again, he lifted off the floor and opened his eyes, the violet glowing through him. He laughed in joy, his face lit up with the glow of his powers and his joy, he lifted a hand and surrounded us in glow, we floated up to join him, it was like being in a bubble, weightless, it felt amazing. He kept us there for a few minutes then gently came back down, he blinked, and the glow vanished. He looked in wonder down at himself, at his hands and for the first time, he looked happy in himself. 

‘it’ll come easier with some practice – you won’t have to concentrate as hard’ I said, he nodded happily, and we headed back off to lunch. 

‘Well, now that you two are both official avengers, and you have definitely earnt it, I think I can give you these - sorry for the delay’ Tony held out two cases to Em and Henri. It was the week after we had managed to harness Henri’s powers and she had since been practising, she could now summon her glow easily, and could use her fire with control, which had proven very useful in various things such as hot drink-warming, popcorn making (Carol was relieved that we now had a new person to call Captain Microwave) and threatening when people tried to steal her food. 

They opened the cases, inside Em’s was a suit, like the one she had worn on the rooftop that day, but it was plated with light silver and white armour, over the pale blue of the fabric, it had a mask with it a bit like Peter’s, and a lighter cape. She pulled it on over her leggings and t shirt and it immediately shrunk to fit her, moving seamlessly over her. He all gave a round of applause and a cheer, then turned to Henri. She pulled out two suits, looking up at Tony like it was a mistake – he explained that they were fitted slightly different and had slightly different looks for her different days, she grinned at him in thanks and tried them on. The first one was dark grey with silver plates reinforcing it, leather straps running in an x across the chest with loops in the back and had a blue ring around one wrist - ‘it’s like your bands so you won’t have to wear them into battle – the other has a red one and it has a built-in binder for you – should be more comfortable’ Stark explained. She nodded, still staring raptly at it, the other one was the same design, but the torso was slightly different; violet instead of charcoal, to match her glow, and shaped slightly more like Red and Nat’s catsuits. 

‘Mr Stark they’re...amazing thank you’ she stuttered 

‘but what are the loops on the back for?’ 

Tony ducked out of the door for a minute and returned holding a long thin case, handing it to Henri. She took it and undid the latch. Inside, nestling on violet lining, was a silver fencing sword, it was a sabre - I recognised it from the long lecture Henri had given on the mortal offence of being called a foilist or an epeeist when sabreurs were clearly the best fencers (I must imagine there was a slight bias) and was matched perfectly to her hand when she picked it up. 

‘you said you didn’t like hurting people’ he said 

‘I thought this might be good; you can fight back, but it won’t do any harm - I mean unless you use it for eye-gouging but that’s a personal choice – and I know you know how to handle one’ he raised his eyebrows and Henri smirked, nodding and swishing it through the air with a satisfying ‘thwa’ sound 

‘Well now that you’re all in a good mood I think I have an announcement’ said Carol, standing up with a getting-it-over-with air. 

‘we are having a …. you guessed it...press con tomorrow woo!’ they pulled a pathetic little party popper, a giant fake grin on their face. It dropped and they stood up normally, shouting over the boos. 

‘fine I know you hate them but after all we’ve done the last few months we really can’t not and it isn’t my fault – if you want to blame anyone blame pepper’ they said, hands up in mock-defeat 

‘wow. how brave, Captain Marvel.’ said Tony passive-aggressively under his breath and Carol mock punched him on the shoulder. Or real punched him. You can never tell with us... 

I looked over to the other sofa; Red was teaching Em to change her hair colour for the press con – as I watched, Red demonstrated, running her fingers through her hair and making it brighter. 

Em screwed up her face and dragged her hands through her own tangly brown hair; streaks of pale blue ran through it from the roots, fading as they went down as she so far lacked the strength to keep it going, but glowing as far as it had gone. Red handed her a mirror and they whooped and high-fived, practising over and over again until she could get it ice blue. I sighed, laughing a little at my dumbass girlfriend and turned back to Val and our game of chess 

‘you gotta love them right’ she giggled, watching them too 

‘yep’ I laughed 

‘and also...’ 

‘what?’ 

‘checkmate’ 

‘right, phoniest grins on, we’re going into the belly of the beast’ I muttered, plastering a huge fake grin onto my face and wheeling into the conference room, following the others. We all took our places at the long table and Carol took out some notecards, looking up and speaking clearly 

‘Hello everyone! Thank you for coming! We are here today to mark several firsts in the Avengers team, and to reveal the identities of two of our avengers, Blue Lynx, and Black Wolf, and lastly to reveal our new motto. Initium Novum. A new beginning. Because this is a new beginning for all our members, it means something different for all of them, an escape from the past, or a new future, but whatever your reason for joining us, it is your new beginning.’ they stopped and grinned as the reporters applauded. 

‘Now, I would like to introduce our firsts!’ they stood up, looking down the table’ 

‘Black wolf, is the carrier of several firsts’ said Carol, as Henri stood up, a mask on his face, his dark grey armour on. He drew his sword and waved at the cameras 

“Black Wolf is our youngest avenger, at only fourteen years old at initiation, and also our first genderfluid avenger, and our second gender-non-binary avenger overall’ 

‘О, черт возьми, без давления, спасибо, Кэрол’ (oh damn! No pressure thanks Carol!) muttered Henri over comms and we all sniggered. 

‘Our other first is our first disabled female avenger, we already have a couple of men, but I am proud to present our own, Princess Shuri, who is, may I say, even more scary in a wheelchair than abled because she now has the ability to run over our feet’ laughed Carol 

“I raised my eyebrows in a cocky smirk and pressed a new button on my wheelchair controls, my chair shot into the air, did a somersault and came back down, to a round of applause. 

‘Thank you! We're now going to answer any of your questions, then reveal the identities of our two newest recruits!’ 

Then followed the usual annoying, ignorant questions, but everyone was on form today, deflecting annoying reporters with finely finessed sarcasm and cloaked insults, and we finally came to the revealing of identities. Just as they were about to pull their masks off, the crowd with baited breath, cameras ready, I saw a man in the back, he pulled a pin from a small ball in his hand, lobbed it into the crowd 

‘EVERYBODY GET AWAY THAT’S A GRENADE!’ I screamed, and the reporters fled to the edges of the hall. The grenade exploded, bringing the middle of the hall down. The force threw our table backwards and I was pitched into the wall, I felt my head hit a wall and I blacked out. 

Henri 

As the grenade exploded, I managed to lift Em and I into the air, she was next to me, the only one I could reach in time and we ran to the end of the hall, pushing reporters aside and reaching the man in time. He drew out a gun but Em somersaulted onto him, knocking it from his hands, he drew a sword, sharp. I managed to throw her out of the way just in time and drew my own. I heard the click of cameras but I tuned it out, closing my eyes and hearing my coach’s voice in my ears. ‘Expect the unexpected Henri. They may underestimate you but they will always do what you last expect. ‘I lifted my arm unconsciously, going into cant, blocking the blow. I parried and lunged, lifting myself into the air and coming down on the other side of him, I feinted and blocked; tiers cant, cart, cant, tiers cant, bellestra, lunge, recover, feint I recited in my head, stepping in and out, I caught his wrist and flicked, the sword flew out of his hand, landing with a clatter on the floor and Em and I took advantage, we flew forward and managed to throw him to the floor, holding him down with our combined forces. 

The security guards must have heard the kerfuffle and came running in, grabbing the man from the floor and dragging him out. I muttered over comms to Em 

‘well, I mean we’re never going to have a more dramatic opportunity than now are we’ 

‘masks off?’ she asked 

‘masks off’ I agreed. We drew our hands across our faces in one fluid motion and revealed our identities. I shook my hair out of my eyes, laughing and high fiving Em as her hair tumbled down across her shoulder, blinded by the flashing lights. 

Shuri. 

I came around a few hours later, all the others except Em and Henri who, it seemed, had survived unscathed, in beds next to me, awake and watching the TV. I turned my attention too; it was the reporter who had been at the front of the rabble. 

‘and last on our list of events for the night, an incident I was involved in personally, a former security guard at the Avengers compound, disgruntled at his redundancy, threw a grenade in the centre of a press conference at the tower.’ 

They cut to footage, me shouting, screams and then a rustle and a click as the camera was turned off. Another piece of footage came on, something I didn’t remember, Em and Henri were fighting the guy, Henri twirling and leaping in the air, his glow surrounding him as he parried and fought, his sword flashing in and out of focus, moving too fast for an image to be captured, a gleam of steel as the man’s sword flew into the air, and the two converged on the man. The security guards dragged him away and they ripped off their masks, grinning and high fiving as their hair tumbled out, eyes gleaming. 

‘wow,’ said Em 

‘we make a good team’ 

She grabbed Henri beside her into a half headlock-half hug and everyone in the beds applauded, laughing at them and congratulating them. 

A few days later when we were all up, luckily, we only had mild concussions, I went down to the museum with Peter and Henri, I wheeled over and pointed at a new board that had been erected along with the others. Henri was standing over the man, sword out, glowing and holding him down (his face blurred out) and even I had to admit, it was magnificent. 

‘soooooo who would like to be my favourite person ever and watch Aly tomorrow so we can do Valentines’ said Nat, raising her eyebrows and looking pleadingly at us, standing obstinately, arms crossed in front of her. None of us wanted to give up our Valentines dates even for the adorable tiny human, so we were waiting for everyone else to crack first. 

‘ugh fine we’ll take her’ Em and I said at the same time. Nat laughed 

‘you two are my favourite people ever - I will definitely pay you back’ she groaned, passing Aly to Carol and collapsing on the floor with exhaustion. We all picked her up, carrying her back upstairs and threw her unceremoniously into bed. 

‘You don’t mind, do you?’ said Em anxiously that night. We were lying in bed finishing off our plans for the next day and working out how to look after the baby and do our plans. I reached out across the space between our beds and took her hand 

‘no. not at all. as long as you’re happy I am and if you don’t mind the baby I don’t. Anyway - she’s too cute to hate’. 

‘agreed. But I'm really tired now and I don’t want to be tomorrow so I'm going to sleep now’ she groaned, turning over and rustling as she burrowed down under her sheets. 

I turned over too, staring out of the window at the moon and the stars, full of excitement and anticipation. 

I woke up early next morning and pulled on normal clothes, we were going out properly later, and got up. I wheeled down to the kitchen and found half of all the couples there; Maria, Carol, Red, Thor and Peter were all tiptoeing around making breakfast trays. I wheeled over to Val and had a minor but pretty violent silent fight over the pancake batter (which culminated in my victory, but sharing of the pancakes) and made up a tray for Em. I piled up pancakes, decorating with fruit and golden syrup, poured cups of coffee and orange juice and took a vase and a rose from Carol who had clearly foreseen this circumstance and prepared. I wheeled carefully in and prodded Em awake. She smiled when she saw the tray and helped me up next to her so we could share the pancakes (I had subtly put two forks on the tray and I think she picked up the hint.) When we had finished, she took the tray downstairs and I headed off to pick up Aly; we had agreed to take her all day so that Nat and Maria could have a proper day to themselves. They handed her off to me along with about three giant kitbags full of her stuff, kissed her goodbye and almost sprinted out of the door. I bounced her on my lap for a bit, waiting for Em to come and take her so I could get back downstairs again. As I held her my stomach twisted in knots of fear and anticipation about later 

Soon enough Em came down and we went to take Aly for a walk, holding hands in the fresh spring air. 

‘This is nice - I feel like old people’ I laughed, quoting Brooklyn 99. We were both wearing disguises, me a beanie and big sunglasses and her a hat and a scarf wrapped around her head and face, so we wouldn’t be bothered, but I was grateful as it kept the wind off my face. An alarm sounded from deep in my pocket and I pulled out my phone, seeing a reminder pop up, we stopped for a minute, lifting Aly out to give her her morning bottle and sat back, looking across at the view in content silence. I had never before really appreciated where we lived - I had always thought it was a concrete shithole but it was really beautiful from this angle. Em checked her watch and we headed towards the direction of the cinema – we were going to see Notting Hill – a special Valentine’s day rom-com showing. Em went to sort out our tickets and I wheeled off to stand in the popcorn queue. We sat down in the dark, and I remembered our first date – it had been a kind of double date with Red and Val, and I had been so nervous, first time ever being nervous - I hadn’t liked it – but I had had so many firsts with Em. First proper date, first anniversary, first time being in love.... first best friend really. We had managed to find a wheelchair friendly cinema and had seats right at the back. I smiled at her as the film started, the white light highlighting her face, and she grinned back, then turned her attention to the screen. 

Aly started screaming in the middle of the film, so I took her out into the lobby, checking her and wheeling into the mum-and-baby changing space. When she was changed, clean and quiet (and I had had experiences that would haunt me for a lifetime) I returned quietly to the theatre. I saw Em’s face in the crowd, laughing loudly and unembarrassedly at a scene in the film, and I knew right then that I had no qualms about what I was going to do. I came in quietly next to her and she took the baby from me and passed me the popcorn. 

The rest of the day passed pretty unremarkably; we had no plans until later and all the others were out so we had decided to have a movie marathon. Nat had left us behind some cupcakes as a thank you for looking after Aly. At five o clock we went off to go and get ready. I got changed (with difficulty) into a crop top and a pair of nice vintage jeans and an aviator jacket (a gift from Carol from her air force days) and did my makeup, just some eyeliner and red lipstick, I braided the gold into my hair that Em liked, then got the baby ready and went to wait for her downstairs. As she came down, I smiled, she looked amazing; she was wearing a long red skirt and a sleeveless white top under a brown leather jacket, her hair twisted up in a knot again. She pulled on her shoes and touched the gold in my hair gently, smiling at it 

‘all ready to go?’ 

‘yep - got the baby’s stuff?’ 

‘yep’ 

‘got the baby?’ 

‘shit hang on’ 

Once we had got the baby from her cot, and ascertained that we hadn’t forgotten anyone else, we headed out the door. 

‘umm reservation under Stark?’ I asked, the tail coated waiter led us to a table. We sat down, glasses of sparkling water in champagne flutes in front of us and a fancy basket of bread between us. The waiter handed us menus and I scanned down mine, not really paying attention. Aly started crying, making the posh old couple next to us glare disapprovingly. Em tried to shush her but her cry rose to a wail and then a shriek. We were politely asked to leave. 

We stood stranded in the street; all other places would have been booked – and we couldn’t go home – that would be pathetic. As we stood there, panic rose in my throat, my entire plan was scuppered. I took a deep breath of cold air and coughed, my lung still a little fragile. It would be fine. 

Em managed to calm the baby and we sought refuge in the closest place we could, a diner-café. I internally shook my fist at the cosmic irony, but entered quietly and we sat down in a dirty leather booth, trying not to touch the greasy tables. We both looked in dismay at the table, then the floor, the gum chewing waitress, and burst out laughing. She shuffled over with some menus and we ordered. It actually turned out to be a great night, we bought surprisingly decent hot dogs and milkshakes, much more at ease here than in a fancy restaurant, and able to laugh when I gave myself a mustard Mustache, or when Em accidentally sprayed ketchup down her front. We were sharing a banana split when I decided. It was the right time. 

‘so, there’s something I want to say’ I said, taking a deep breath and moving around the table to hold her hand. 

‘Ok, this is not how I planned to do this, but you know it doesn’t matter. In fact, it’s a perfect kind of metaphor. I can’t promise I’m going to be perfect. I can’t promise to be nice all the time; I’m not the prettiest, or the funniest person in the world. I’m not the kindest. I am probably the most sarcastic, the most short-tempered, the most frustratingly stubborn annoying person in the world I will take credit for that.’ I laughed 

‘I have terrible self-esteem and I’ll never believe you if you compliment me. I’m probably too quick to take offence, too quick to draw a weapon, too quick to give blame so I don’t have to take it. I’m not the bravest, or the worthiest, or the strongest person in the world. I’m flawed, but I’m not ashamed of it, of me, I’m not ashamed or embarrassed. I’m flawed but I’ll be the quickest one to jump to your defence, the quickest one to steal you the last muffin, the quickest one to lift you up when you’re down, the quickest one to tell you I love you.’ a tear slipped down my cheek and I laughed and wiped it away grinning 

‘I can’t promise I’ll be perfect, Em, but I can promise that I’ll love you to the ends of the earth and back. If we get a dog, I’ll take it out in the pouring rain so you don’t have to. If we have a baby I'll get up in the middle of the night when it cries. If you’re tired or sad I’ll tell you how beautiful, and how clever, how funny you are, if you’re down I’ll make you crack a smile, if you’re ill I’ll make you soup – I can’t promise it’ll be edible but I’ll try.’ at this she broke down into happy tears, knowing what was coming. 

‘Nothing about me is perfect, but I’ll try my best and I’ll love you forever, so if that’s good enough for you, and now we’re allowed, and now we’re old enough, and, damn this is the one moment I wish I wasn’t in a wheelchair so I could get down on one knee,’ I pulled out a small black box, ‘ 

but, Michelle Jones, will you marry me?’ 

I opened the box. Inside was a ring, it was small and gold, with a sapphire set into it, blue, like her, and the tiny words ‘ndiyakuthanda ngonaphakade sithandwa sam’ etched into it - I'll love you forever, my love’ Tears rolled down her beautiful face, her mascara spreading around her eyes. She grinned, wiping them away and spoke 

‘well how could I say no to that!’ I sighed in relief, more tears slipping down my face and slipped the band onto her finger, it fitted perfectly. She stood up, lifted me from my chair bridal style, still laughing, her face so close I could see the tears on her eyelashes, and kissed me. 

The whole three customers applauded, along with the waitress who had taken out her headphones and gave us a 100% discount on the bill. We thanked her profusely and ran laughing from the restaurant, still holding hands, feeling the thin metal band on Em’s finger. Then we ran back inside remembering we had forgotten the baby. 

We didn’t feel like taking a cab even though it we were a few miles from the compound so we went through the park. It was freezing but I was so warm inside I didn’t care. Em stopped me when we were standing under a huge cherry blossom tree. 

‘It’ll be flowering in two months’ she whispered. Suddenly, like someone had blown up a pillow, white flakes came falling out of the sky. Em pulled out the clip in her hair, letting it cascade over her shoulders and white flakes fell on her face, she looked like a snow queen or something. 

‘come on – let's dance or something – it's the perfect setting – like the movies and I feel like doing something a bit crazy’ she said. 

‘but..I can’t’ I replied, gesturing at my metal prison, today was the only day I had felt truly disabled. 

‘oh, we can get past that’ she whispered, leaning in. She pulled out her phone, putting on the first song on her playlist, ironically it was dancing in the moonlight, and set Aly down on the bench 

She lifted me from my chair again, an arm holding me up around the waist and took my hand, spinning around so her skirt swirled around her like fire. The white flakes fell on us as we danced, it was like a movie. My face was raised just above hers, and I bent down to kiss her forehead. The song ended but we stayed there, together, as the sky dusted us with white, it was perfect. Em put me gently on the bench, took a blanket from Aly’s bag and spread it on the floor. She helped me down and I propped myself up on my elbows, her lying down next to me and producing a bottle of champagne. 

‘I swiped this from the restaurant just before we left’ 

‘criminal’ I laughed 

‘oh, damn we don’t have glasses...umm’ 

‘I have an idea’ 

So that’s the story of how I lay in a park, under a cherry tree, with snow falling all around me, holding the hand of my new fiancée, sipping slightly milky champagne from a tomee tippee baby mug. 

‘why are you two back so late we agreed a 10 o clock curfew – we were worried about you and you have the baby it’s very irespons..’ Carol started angrily but tailed off when Em held up her hand. Everyone who had gathered around to watch us being told off by the ex-captain microwave screamed, waking the baby and causing her to join in with the cacophonous racket with screams of her own. 

Once everyone’s reactions subsided, we laughed and I spoke 

‘we will now field one minute and zero seconds for any questions pertaining to this subject’ (Rosa Diaz - I was on fire with the Brooklyn 99 quotes today) 

‘Red’ 

‘how are you engaged – Em’s underage’ 

‘well, actually she isn’t – she had her birthday while she was away training last year, and we don’t really care that we’re a bit young’ 

‘let’s see the ring’ squealed Val, and Em held up her hand, laughing 

‘what I want to know’ Said Nat over everyone else 

‘is how Shuri managed to do this with no pranks involved’ 

‘with great difficulty requiring a lot of self-control so yes, you may follow my example’ I said composedly. 

I didn’t sleep that night, neither did Em. She climbed over into bed next to me and put her arm around me. I voiced a question I had been worrying about 

‘Em have you thought this through, I mean with me, and the wheelchair – like I said I'll do my best but won’t it be hard for you to be married to a....cripple’ 

She slapped me hard across the face and I lay there paralyzed in shock. When she spoke, her voice shook with anger and tears 

‘don’t you ever dare call yourself that. I love you Shuri, I love you so much and I don’t care if your legs don’t work – if it’s a bit harder so what we’ll get through it together. you‘re stronger than ever now and if anyone calls you that tell me and I will crush them’ I laughed, but it soon turned into tears and I lay there, letting it out, being vulnerable to my feelings for once. I had felt disabled today, I had felt … not good enough, but Em had quietly, without fuss, made her way around that and made me feel normal for once. When I was with her, I had no disability. She made it all go away, and I was just realising that now I wouldn’t be disabled for the rest of my life. So, there were happy tears mingling with the pain that night. 

‘So - have you decided when to have the wedding?’ Henri asked at breakfast the next morning 

‘urm we haven’t actually but I had an idea’ I said, turning to Em 

‘you said that the cherry blossom tree we danced under would bloom in two months. I think that’s when, and where we should do it – if you think so?’ 

‘That sounds perfect’ she whispered, kissing me on the cheek 

‘ugh get a room’ said Peter, ambling in, sleep ruffled. 

‘oh give them a break it’s sweet’ defended Henri 

‘yeah, give us a break ickle spiderboi’ I teased, speaking over his protestations 

‘So, it’s agreed – that's where we’ll do it?’ 

‘that’s the place’. 

‘Are you going to have best...people? A cake? A dress or suits or armour or something else? An officiator or bridesmaids or what?’ asked Henri eagerly. At that point Nat and Maria, Red and Val, Carol and Lena, Bruce, Thor, Tony and Clint, who had, I assumed, been filled in as he had been at home with Laura last night. 

‘ooh we talking wedding?’ asked Nat 

‘Yeah - Henri was just giving us the Spanish inquisition’ Em joked 

‘ok umm let’s have a go at this’ I said, looking at Em 

‘um yes I think we will have best people? Yes? Ok yes, what kind of a wedding would it be without cake and yes you can make it I see you wetting yourself with anticipation – if that’s ok?’ I asked Em 

‘okay with me?’ she said, hands up 

‘okay what was the next one... um yes outfit – well I think maybe not armour - I want to feel like a person rather than avenger that day..’ 

‘agreed’ 

‘good okay then...i guess we’ll pick our own outfits as a surprise? Yep, okay officiator....umm’ I whispered in Em’s ear and she nodded 

‘okay well, Carol if you’re still ordained?’ 

‘sure am’ 

‘great that’s settled then’ 

Carol gave a thumbs up behind the kettle just as Em started speaking 

‘well if we’re picking our own best people...Henri? I mean we basically joined together, we trained together, we took down that guy together – looking pretty cool doing it if I may say so’ she said, swishing her hair dramatically 

‘and..well you’re one of my best friends here and we seem to work well together...if you want to?’ 

‘yeah sure of course that would be..amazing thank you! But wouldn’t you rather ask Peter?’ gabbled Henri. 

Before Em could answer I pulled a cord, A confetti bomb exploded on Peter’s head, showering him in bright paper and he screamed very high-pitchedly and shot up onto the ceiling, showering Tony in coffee. 

‘don’t worry Henri - I'll be doing that – if you agree Petey?’ I laughed 

‘Jesus Shuri you really are one for the dramatic – number one, is it really necessary to give me a heart attack? Number two, hell yes I am in, and number three, Mr Stark I'm very sorry about the coffee I ...’ but Stark waved away his apology laughing, and I whooped, sending my chair up the wall to join him (new anti-gravity feature - I get bored okay?!) 

‘Well, if we only have two months we should probably get going.’ Remarked Lena. 

The next two months were a whirl of happiness and endless mind-numbing decisions. Henri spent their days elbow deep in cake batter and frosting, each day bringing a new sample sponge until we agreed on rainbow lemon and elderflower with lemon frosting and flowers, Val went through endless hairstyle planning, Ria and Nat in charge of flowers and Aly, after delighted agreement by Nat and Ria, was to be our flower girl, Carol practised their officiating, and Red, Lena, Thor and Bruce oversaw helping with outfits (Lena was on veils, Bruce on shoes, Thor on Em in general and Red on me). I had picked out a white tux, with a lacy top, White doc Martens (of course) and a small lace veil to match my top. Val played around with many hairstyles before taking out my braids and extensions, so my full afro was exposed and weaving pins and flowers into my hair. We sent out invitations, my mother, Okoye and T’Challa were coming in from Wakanda, Steve 1 (rogers) and Fury too. Soon enough it was the day before, everyone was arriving in the morning and we were having a movie-and-beauty night like the Blackhill wedding. 

Henri was passing muffins around, made from extra batter, and icing the cake, while all the others took on the same roles, they had fulfilled last time. Nat and Maria had taken over for Em and I and were doing nails and face packs. 

I sat on the sofa, my face covered in tea tree and coconut or some such concoction, Ria painting my nails and Val tugging at my hair. Nat was doing test make up on Em while my face pack was on, but I wasn’t allowed to see. Nat came over to me holding a wet flannel, having finished with Em, and proceeded to skin me alive removing the leather-hard goop from my face. As she went off to get the make-up, I did a mock look of terror at Em, and she laughed, mouthing ‘love you too sthandwa’ back at me. I smiled lovingly at her, a look which turned to terror as I saw the sheer volume of face shit that Nat had in her hands. 

We (well I say we..) decided finally on the red lipstick I had worn the night we got engaged, silver eye shadow and just a bit of blush, I didn’t want loads of stuff caked on my face, I thought happiness made a person pretty and tomorrow was going to be the happiest day of my life. Nat said ‘aww’ then mimed puking when I expressed this sentiment and went to take Aly away from Henri, where she had been sitting on the worktop trying to grab the electric beaters whilst Henri fended her off with a spoon. 

I managed to sleep quickly that night – which was strange - I could never usually sleep before an exciting event, but I guessed my body wanted to be as rested as possible before tomorrow. I woke up early, about six I guess, full of energy. I pulled myself out of bed, wishing more than ever I could go for a run to let off some steam, but washed and pulled on leggings and a t shirt – hair and makeup before suit apparently. I told FRIDAY to let them know I was ready (Em and I had agreed on this system so we wouldn’t cross paths) and soon enough, three people came crashing through the doors. 

‘Aww you guys you look amazing!’ I said, Val was wearing a lilac jumpsuit with high heels, Red a simple pale grey top with flared red trousers and Nat a black tux. 

‘Not as good as you will’ said Red (Val rolling her eyes at the cliche) and they set to work. Within two full hours I was spruced the capacity, feeling lighter than whatever is lighter than air and went up to the roof to wait in the fresh air. Peter came up to join me, looking uncomfortable but excited in his suit and we sat, looking out at the city. Soon I saw a car pull up and Fury and Rogers clambering out, a second car pulled in behind them and I saw my mother and brother climbing out too. 

We rushed down and I met them on the drive, hugging Fury and Rogers, thanking them for coming then turning to my brother. 

‘Wow little sister; great hair’ he joked, hugging me too 

‘ass, careful you’ll ruffle my suit’ I said, mock punching him back. My mother came to hug me too 

‘I can’t wait to meet your husband Shuri! I can’t believe you never told me you were seeing someone’ she said excitedly. I froze. Damnit. She must have assumed - I had never told her I was queer, never told her Em’s name and my brother must have not known either 

‘mama ndinento endifuna ukukuxelela yona, umntu endimtshatayo, uyintombazana, ungumfazi, igama lakhe nguMichelle kwaye ndiyamthanda, kwaye ndiyathemba ukuba nawe uyakumthanda’ I said carefully (mum, the person I am marrying. She is a girl, a woman, her name is Michelle and I love her, and I hope you will too) 

T’Challa stood stunned for a second, but then smiled 

‘How come you didn’t tell me traitor’ I laughed, and he came and hugged me again, then I turned to my mother. She was stony, she opened her mouth and shouted at me, shrieking, ‘awungomntwana wam xa utshata umfazi! awuyindalo. Uyacekiseka!’ - you are no child of mine if you marry a woman, you are unnatural, disgusting’ 

then turned on her heel and stormed back to the car, wrenching the door open and throwing herself inside. My brother looked at me in pain then made his decision. He ran away after the car. I crumpled, tears spilling down my face. Fury stepped forwards but I wheeled away, moving too quickly for him to catch. I hurried up to my lab, locking the door. I screamed, sweeping an experiment off the desk. a month's work. Another table. Three months. I took my guns and shot the cupboards, glass shattering and the doors flying off I grabbed a table and hurled it across the room, it broke the window and flew out, crashing down on the street below. I grabbed another one to throw too but it caught in the spokes of my chair and I crashed to the ground. I lay there, tears falling down my face, immobilised on the floor of the smashed-up lab, a cut on my temple where I had landed on a broken test tube, more on my arm, the sleeves of my jacket torn. 

I didn’t answer the frantic voices crashing at the door, shouting. I just lay there. Numb. Then I saw a yellow glow outside the window and Carol flew in through the shattered glass. They picked me up, put me back in my chair and hugged me until the tears stopped. 

‘Your family are worried about you’ they said quietly 

‘no, they aren’t. My mom hates me and my brother’s a weak snivelling cowardly little ass’ I sobbed. 

‘I don’t mean them’ they said simply. The went over and unlocked the door. Outside stood Em, she wore a mermaid cut white dress, plain, with tiny buttons all down the front, and tulip sleeves. A short veil hung down her back and her hair was cascading over her shoulders. She looked beautiful, but her face was scared. Behind her stood the others and I saw what Carol meant. These people were my family. I nodded. Em hurried over and hugged me, I sobbed into her shoulder, allowing myself to cry, but when I stopped, I wasn’t sad anymore, I was determined, and happy, and full of love for these people who had helped me time and time again. I touched the locket hanging round my neck, and it calmed me. 

‘okay. So, what are we going to do about the suit?’ I asked. Red came forward and gently took off my jacket, my arms hadn’t been damaged badly, a couple of scratches but they were ok. Peter removed his tux jacket and handed it to me, it fitted, and actually looked better than the other one. I laughed. 

‘impeccable taste petey’. Lena came forward and cleaned the scratch on my face, it was small, so when the blood was gone it hardly showed. Nat came and touched up my make-up and when the others had gone, she held up a mirror in front of my face. 

‘look. Look at this girl. She has been through pain, and betrayal, and suffering. But she is strong, she is so strong, and she is kind, and funny, and resilient and always has a smile for us when we’re down, so we’re going to give you the smile today. Whether or not you have two more people there, this is the best day of your life and nothing can ruin that for you, nothing can take that away. You’re marrying the girl you love, and I have to tell you, no joke, it’s the best feeling in the world. Better than battle, better than fighting, it’s love and... what can you say. It's the best thing I've ever felt.’ I smiled at her, my elation from this morning back, but there was something else there too. Pride. I wasn’t ashamed of who I was. And I wasn’t hidden away anymore. 

Nat took me down the stairs and we headed for the car at the front that would take me to my wedding. 

A few minutes later I was standing under the tree, the tree we had danced under. It was thick with pale pink blossoms. As I took my place at the front, Peter standing just behind me, Carol just in front, I heard a click. Em had booked a photographer, of course. I smiled to myself. She had wanted a record of today - I hadn’t even thought. 

A harp started playing – Bruce Banner – a man of hidden talents. And Em walked up the path between the seats. The pale spring air, and the green of the grass seemed to enhance her beauty, or maybe it was the happiness shining through her eyes, maybe my theory was right. She reached me, Henri standing behind her, and handed her bouquet of Madonna lilies to her. She took my hand, her sapphire shining in the reflected light. 

Carol spoke. 

‘We are gathered here today to celebrate the union of Shuri and Michelle. Anyone who knows them will know they make a formidable couple, whether that’s in prank-making, in battle, or in general daily life. I cannot think of two people more in love, and more ready for this day. As they stand here, they pledge their eternal love and allegiance to each other, through battle and through peace, through sickness and through health, until death do them part. I believe they’ve prepared their own vows so now – over to them. 

Em looked into my eyes, smiling and said; 

‘I never thought I would be here today. I had always dreamed of a perfect wedding when I was little, since, in the words of Monica Geller, ‘since I first took a pillowcase and hung it off the back of my head!’ For me it was since I tried on my mum’s veil. The one I'm wearing today. When I first tried it on it went way past my feet, I was so small, and I imagined walking down the aisle with it fanning out behind me. Back then, before I met you, I thought the perfect wedding was about the flowers, and the outfit, and the ring, having the perfect cake. But it isn’t. It's about having the perfect person. So, I know how much you love Brooklyn 99, and I am going to quote Jake Peralta ‘I would marry you in a dumpster’ I have to say – not very eloquent’ everyone laughed. ‘but it’s true. as long as it was you, I would get married anywhere.’ 

Everyone clapped and she took a mock bow, 

‘touché Em’ I laughed. 

‘I have a confession. I didn’t write my vows - I didn’t know what to say but I don’t think it matters what I say because you’re right. It isn’t the wedding. It's the person. Of course – having an incredible wedding courtesy of these amazing people is great too’ I laughed ‘but all jokes aside, you really are the person I want to spend my life with. On our first date I wondered how such an amazing person, witty, kind, beautiful, would ever like me and I still wonder it to this day, but I marvel at that – because that’s life – it's crazy and messy and hectic and that used to scare me, but now that I know I will have you at my side through it all, I say bring it on. I felt disabled for the first time when I proposed to you when I couldn’t get down on one knee, when I though we couldn’t dance under this tree, but you made it go away, you cured me. I felt normal. Better than normal. I’ll have bad days, like I've had before, but seeing you will make it just that little bit better. And that’s a remarkable thing. So, to being partners in crime for the rest of our lives’ 

I looked out into the rows of seating. We had managed to reduce everyone to tears. I laughed and turned back to Em. I looked into her eyes as Carol spoke. 

I think it’s time to do the rings now? Yes? Ok. ‘ 

I turned around, taking a gold band from Peter. I turned back and saw Em holding the same ring. 

‘Michelle, do you take Shuri to be your lawfully wedded wife?’ asked Carol 

‘i do’ I slid the ring onto her finger, and she smiled at it, then looked back up at me. 

‘and do you Shuri, take Michelle to be your lawfully wedded wife?’ 

‘oh hell yeah I do’ 

Em slid the ring onto my finger 

‘I now pronounce you, wife, and wife!’ laughed Carol 

Just at that moment, a blossom fell from the tree and landed on the ground on between us, then a gust of wind came and suddenly it was snowing again, the blossoms falling all around us. Em lifted me up just like she had done that night and twirled me round, my legs span out behind me and when she slowed and stopped, Carol said 

‘you may now kiss the bride!’ 

As we kissed everyone applauded. 

Em pushed my chair down the aisle, and everyone scooped up the fallen blossoms, showering us in confetti as we made our way down, laughing and smiling, it really was like Nat had said, the best feeling in the world. 

As we sat in a cab on the way to the airport, flying to Venice for a honeymoon (two weeks in a fairly deluxe hotel courtesy of tony the billionaire) I turned to Em 

‘the one thing I want to know, is how did the petal fall at exactly the right time, who made that happen I mean was God standing over us with a hairdryer just as we said I do or something?!’ 

She giggled and leaned in 

‘I have to let you into a secret – when I said we had to get married today and wouldn’t tell you why – that's why – the parkkeeper said that tree's petals always fell today, every year, so I checked what time the wind would pick up and et voila! I didn’t tell you because I wanted it to be a surprise, so we could dance in the snow just like when we got engaged’ 

I had nothing to say to this. Well, I had one thing. 

‘I love you Michelle.’ 

‘I love you too. ‘


	10. hi!

So that was the end of the book - I hope you like it - if you managed to stay awake all the way through please leave me a comment! - Henri Belova is my own invention, and I credit Red Dawn to my friend (who's username I forget but her pic is amazing if you want to check it out), I've written thew first bit of my next pic (basically picking up where I left off but from Henri's pov) hope you read!


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